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 30
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The Traher place is next encountered. Here lives Ellen Traher, whose first husband was John Howard, who, a member of the Ninth Heavy Artillery, died in a southern prison. She purchased ten acres of the old Converse farm, and has a small though ample home. (Her second husband, Harry Traher, died last spring, having long been an invalid.)
The road thence, for some distance, is down a steep decline, but the traveler who likes variety will be abundantly pleased with what he finds here. The face of nature is seamed and gashed with cuts so deep that he thinks himself lucky in getting along at all. At the foot of the hill, at
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the left, is the district school-house. Unhappy, barefooted children are puzzling over their tasks as I pass, and are wondering what schools are made for. We begin to take bitter doses early in life, that we may be happier and better later. The original site of the school-house was just about on the line, in the narrow place, where the road and stream lead out into Huron. The old foundations were visible on John Lovejoy's farm, when he came into possession.
The home of Mr. Lovejoy is built on the hill-side, and he has irregulari- ties of surface wherever he looks. Mr. L. is the son of Daniel, whose home we found in the Lake district, on the corner. His wife was Eliza- beth Jane Weeks, born in Rindge, N. H. Her father, Addison Weeks, came to Rose in 1854. His wife was Eliza Wellington, and their home was opposite the present Lovejoy abode. Another daughter is Mrs. Myron Lamb of No. Rose. The Weeks family of New Hampshire has long been one of the best in that state. To the Lovejoys were born these children : Sylvia, who married Frank Soper, of the Valley, and who will be met there; Effie, the wife of Nelson Bush, and Addison, who married Huldah Andrews, and is at home with his father. Addison's children are Frank and Ida. (Also, 1893, Myron J. and Addison Ray.) Mr. Lovejoy built his house, having bought his place of Oscar Weed. The farm is a part of the old Converse estate, and has fifty-two acres in it.
Dwelling nearly opposite is Leman Ellsworth, who occupies the old- Addison Weeks place. The house has a water-edged garden back of it. Near this was the carding machine, maintained for many years by Horace Converse and his son. In the long ago, when wool was spun and woven at home, it was necessary to have the fleece worked into long, uniform rolls for the housewife to reduce to yarn. Then the carding machine was busy. Now that is relegated to the great factory, where spinning and weaving have become lost arts. Mr. Ellsworth was born in Phelps, and his only child is Alice, who married James Calkins, living on the farm to the southwest. They have one child, Eva.
The road and the stream are comrades as they lead out to the north. At the left is the hill-side belonging to John Lovejoy. At the right are the lowlands of Ishmael Gardner .. While the Rose part of the district is ended, it will not be amiss to follow on for a while. After a short dis- tance, the road forks, to lead up and out in diverse ways. Should we go toward the east, we will be led along the darkest, most dangerous road in the town. It winds along the steep, densely-wooded hill-side, having on one side the descent so steep and deep that trees, growing in the bottom of the glen, have their tops on a level with the road. Following this to its exit from the woods, the traveler will find himself near the home of Harvey Barnes, the old Catchpole farm, and in the North Rose district. Monday, August 4th, 1890, Thomas Farnsworth, of Glenmark, drove his
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horse at high speed down this road, till, by some mishap, the whole equipage was launched over the verge and the man was instantly killed : another of the accidents that have from time to time carried sorrow to certain homes in Rose.
The west fork of the road carries us up a steep and winding way, pass- ing several houses belonging to Oscar Weed. By the time we reach his home, the road will have swung around to the west. The large mansion of Mr. Weed is on the north side and is surrounded by shrubbery and trees. Close by are acres of fruit trees, usually the source of large returns. Mr. Weed has made the growing and drying of fruit a specialty. The Weed family came to Wayne county, originally, from Long Island. From it, is said to have come the famous Thurlow, so long the arbiter of New York politics. Oscar Weed was born in Galen, and his wife is Rebecca, née Watson, also of Galen. They came to this place in 1850, and to the 150 acres of the old Peter Paine farm he has added others, till now there are between two and three hundred acres therein. This elegant house he built in 1864. When constructed, there were numerous children at home to make merry its halls and chambers. The mutations of time have removed the most of these from the roof tree, so that now the Weeds find their habitation considerably larger than their needs require. These children are: Watson, who was graduated from Cornell in 1878, and is now a Unitarian minister in Ware, Mass. (now, Scituate); Addison, a graduate from Cornell in 1879, is a farmer in New Hartford, Oneida Co .; Mary, also a graduate from Cornell, is a teacher ; Gerhardus, who died in 1878, at the age of eighteen years; Oscar Dillwyn, at home; and Ruth, who died at the age of sixteen years, in 1882, while visiting her brother, Watson, in Dakota. The latter married Frances Wright, of New Hartford, and was preaching in the west at the time of his sister's death. Addison married Ida Cleveland, also of New Hartford. It is noteworthy that both these sons have been the parents of twins.
Returning to the point where the road from York settlement runs into this, we shall find, just south of the bifurcation, the store and residence of Albert E. Ellis. Mr. E.'s wife is Mary, a daughter of the Barnum whom we found in the extreme north end of the Covell district, but who, owing to the death of his wife, lived, till his death, October 26th, 1890, with Mrs. Ellis. The store and home are neat and attractive and betoken thrift.
The site is one of the most noted in the town; for this is where the old Converse Hotel was located, and near here were the shops and mills which once made this an exceedingly busy hollow. The complete genesis of this locality at this late date is almost hopeless, but I will do the best I can. The name of Converse was once very common here, coming from Horace, who migrated hither from Pittsford, near Rochester. While a deal of business seemed to be done here, a class of people was called into the
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neighborhood whose presence gave all honest people much uneasiness. For instance, one man stole a horse from a clergyman. For this he re- ceived a sentence of four years in the Auburn prison. After his release, he became a respectable citizen in a western state. Visits from officers of the law were frequent and necessary, and Rose farmers must have learned that rural quiet is vastly preferable to activity associated, as this too often is, with vice. Converse managed a blacksmith shop, built two saw- mills, conducted the carding machine, maintained a grocery, built and ran a hotel. This latter structure, after his death, was allowed to fall into decay. Mr. Converse's wife's name was Abigail. They had three sons and one daughter: Harriet, who married Charles Angle and went west; George married widow Susan Alford; Henry married Rebecca Angle; Charles succeeded his father in the business, and finally died in 1861, at the age of 47 years. It is more than probable that much which was laid at the door of these dwellers in the Glen, they were not guilty of, for the old adage, "Give a dog a bad name and send him to the d-1," applies fully in such cases. It is likely, too, that many instances told to-day are quite legendary.
James Van Auken built the carding mill and he sold his right to the Sodus Canal Co., from whose possession the place passed to Horace Converse. James Van A. was a brother of Simeon, and it is probable that he was the earliest owner. He joined the march to the west. How many other owners there may have been to date I can not state.
The road is narrow, and on the side of the glen, till we pass through and find, at the right, the place whose dwellers, in order, would afford a long list. Thomas Farnsworth, the latest tenant, was killed, as just noted. Mr. F. was born in England. His wife's maiden name was Julia A. Dunham. He bought the place of Sidney Garlick. The small building in which Ira Mirick once kept a store is still standing and yet indicates the purposes for which it was built. Near this place, on the hill, is where some of the first comers buried their dead, and among others Simeon Van Auken's first wife, Olive.
A number of small holdings are found as we pursue the road southward. At first, at the left, is an old blacksmith shop, where Eli Garlick shod horses. His home was the small house just beyond, now occupied by Christian Fink, formerly living south of Covell's. The road goes through a deep cutting and climbs quite an altitude until it emerges on the plain above. At the right is the place where the Marquettes and their descend- ants have lived for many years. Daniel, the first one, once lived further south on this road, nearly opposite the home of Seth Woodward.
The last farm in the district, on this road, is that of James French, who may be found on the west side of the road, just before reaching the railroad and the beginning of the Covell district. Mr. French was born in Ireland
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and came to this place twenty years ago, and bought of John Shear. He married Sarah Bunyea, who was born in Wisconsin, of French extraction. She is a relative of Mrs. Ishmael Gardner, of North Rose, and of Chelsea Deming, of Huron. They have three children-Temperance, Ernest and Wallace-all at home, though Temperance is a teacher. There are fifty acres in the farm. (One of the sons is now in railroad employ in Oswego.)
Coming back to the point where this road emerged from the glen, we may turn to the east. In doing so, it will be necessary to cross a bridge which spans the creek just before it falls over its rocky verge. South of the bridge, there long exisited a dam, which retained the waters of Thomas' creek, thus affording power for the mills below it. (Since rebuilt. ) Simeon Van Auken was the builder of the dam and grist-mill. He came from Junius, and his wife was Olive Whitney, a sister of Seth Whitmore's wife. The Whitmores-Seth and Benjamin-were mill men from an early date. Mr. Van Auken married for his second wife the widow Wright, née Pot- wine, and she, too, died here. The Van Aukens were Presbyterians. They long since moved to Michigan and died. They sold to Dr. Peter Valentine, and he to Ira Mirick, who maintained a variety of interests. He sold to. the Canal Co., from which Henry Young rented. This man lives now in Ontario. He had a son, Israel.
John Brown, a native of Pennsylvania, married Eveline Tindall, a sister of Chas. H. and "Parm," of the Valley. He held the mill for some time, but finally went to Michigan. Before doing so, he was for a while in Victor, in company with Brownell Wilbur, once of Rose. The Brown children were : Charles, who married Celia Tracy, of Huron, and now lives near Jackson, Mich., and with whom the father died; Juliette and Alfred, both of whom are dead. William Chaddock sold to Henry Garlick, or rather traded with him, and he sold to L. R. Ellis, who came hither from Tompkins county. He was formerly a Protestant Methodist minister. He married Elizabeth L. Yale of. Cortland county. Their children are: Albert E., already met further north, and Lydia, who is at home. Mr. Ellis was a member of Battery A, 3d New York Artillery, during the War. The resi- dence of the family is a very pleasant place, on the north side of the road, the same having shared the changes which have come to the mill property.
A private way leads towards the south, along the right bank of Thomas' creek, and in addition to a saw-mill we shall find the home of George T. Ellis. He is a son of Algernon, an Englishman. His wife was Clara. Wolff, of Rose, and he bought of Wesley Burns, now of Alton. He pur- chased from George Correll, who bought of Ira Lathrop, who came here after selling his farm to the south, to Seymour Covell.
Still following this by-path, we gradually mount to the level above and find the abode of Abram Doremus, born in Mentz, Cayugo Co. He once lived where Frank Weeks is, in the York neighborhood. He married
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Betsey Featherly, and their children are: George, in Jackson, Mich .; Lydia, the wife of William B. Hill, of North Rose; Adaline, the wife of Douglas Colborn, of the Valley ; Jennette, the wife of Darwin Gillet, of Huron, and the twins-Helen and Ellen-who married the twin Briggs-Lyman and Luman. It should be said that these daughters, Helen and Ellen, are the oldest children. This is the old Featherly homestead, and in addition to Betsey there was Lydia Jane, who married Horace Morey. George Featherly was a son of John, one of the most noted settlers of the town. His boyhood's home was where the present Hetta abode is. His wife was Susan Kinkaid, and they bought this Doremus place of James Aldrich. The parents died years since, and this place of fifty-eight acres passed to Doremus, who repaired the house. This and the farm beyond are more isolated than any other places in the town.
Still pursuing a private way, and crossing the track of the R., W. & O. R. R., we find the home of Horace Morey, who married Lydia J. Feather- ly. His farm he took from the land office. The Morey children are : John, who married Rachel Smalley, and lives in North Rose, and Warren, also in North Rose, who married Carrie Desmond.
Coming back to the road, we turn to the right, and leaving at the corner the home of Mr. Ellis, so long a part of the mill belongings, we climb out of the glen. Years ago the table land beyond marked the beginning of the North Rose district, but in later times the dwellers in the first two abodes belong to Glenmark. The very first home is that in which lives Daniel Jeffers, a son of Nathan, and the place is the old Pardon Jones farm. Note of this was made in the North Rose series, but since then I have learned that the Nicholas Stansell who early settled there was a noted man in his day; a companion of John Featherly, whose sister he married. These two men, with William Stansell, came to Lyons in 1789 ; the settlers whose coming entitled the county to a centennial in 1889. They located first on what was afterward the Dorsey farm, near Alloway. There was nothing in the way of hardship and privation that these pioneers did not suffer. William Stansell was with Sullivan in his expedition against the Indians in 1779, and the lay of the land charmed him then. He was the leader of the expedition. It is traditional in the family that Featherly was a soldier in the Revolution also. Restless as the waves of the sea, these early hunters worked up into this section, and the name of Stansell is con- nected with this place, though it seems reasonable that he should have been before rather than after James Colborn, 1st.
With the farm on the south side of the road, the name of John A. Hetta has been connected for more than thirty years. He was born in Germany and found a wife in Mary A. Lamb, a daughter of John, of North Rose. They have only one child-Etha Jane-recently married to Irving J. Lane, of the Jeffers neighborhood. Mr. Hetta has imparted to all his surround-
17
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ings many indications of the thrift so characteristic of the Germans. It was to this place that the pioneer, John Featherly, came when the century was young. It is probable that he was of Herkimer or Montgomery county derivation. His wife was Mary Claus, the same name we have found Anglicized as Closs. In his way hither, he had lived in Lyons and Phelps. His final remove was to the cemetery in York's corners. The children were Frederick, who married and died at Three River Point in Oswego county. Then followed George, met in the Doremus place; John, who went to Michigan ; Joseph, killed, when young, by a sleigh tongue ; Betsey, who moved to Cattaraugus county, and Catherine, who married William Baker, and once lived where the Sobers were reared, in the west part of the district.
DISTRICT NO. 4 .- " THE VALLEY."
November 5, 1891-March 3, 1892.
PART I.
Our rambles in Rose have fully skirted the town, and now we approach the heart. For this purpose we will pass toward the west from District No. 6, or what is called Stewart's, and, passing the famous spring at the foot of the hill, we will pause first at the stone house on the north side of the road, for many years the property of Joel Lee. Of him and his, extended mention was made in the article ending District No. 6. It is on this location that one Lincoln is said to have squatted ; but his happiness was disturbed by the frogs, that, to his fancy, were perpetually saying : "Don't you want to buy here, Lincoln ?" This finally drove him out, when he sought a home further west, and on, let us hope, higher ground. Chester Ellinwood afterward owned, and from him possession passed to his oldest son, Ensign. The latter built the stone house, the material for whose outer courses he drew from Lake Ontario. Henry Robinson of the Lake district was the boss mason in the construction, thus assuring the character of the work. The house was begun in 1841 and finished in 1842. Ensign was twice married, first to Catharine Rifenbach of Newark, and, second, to Mrs. Egbert Brant of Lyons. She, Sarah J. Holmes, was born in Salisbury, Conn. By his first wife, he had two daughters, Jennie and Alice Irene. The latter died in infancy, and the former lived to be a beautiful, accomplished young woman of eighteen years. In October, the 26th day, 1889, Mr. Ellinwood was instantly killed by a train of cars in Newark. He had come down from Rochester, but, by mistake, took a train which ran no further than Newark. There he was killed while on the track of the N. Y. Central R. R. By a singular fatality this
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accident happened on his birthday, he being seventy-one years old on that day. Mr. Ellinwood, for many years, was one of the most noted teachers of vocal music in Wayne county. An excellent singer himself, he succeeded admirably in imparting his knowledge to others. After leaving the farm, he lived in several places-as Newark, Rochester and Wolcott. I met him last in August, 1889. I took the Clyde and Wolcott stage as it passed the road which enters the post road just east of Ensign Wade's. Mr. Ellinwood was aboard, having taken the stage from his brother Chester's, east of Stewart's corners. Every inch of the land through which we were riding was familiar to him. As boy and man, he had played and worked in every field. As we rode by the Ellinwood burial ground, he leaned out and held the spot in sight as long as it could be seen. I did not mention the subject of his thoughts, but I well knew that in his mind were the wife of his youth, the child that died in infancy, and the daughter who was borne there just as she was budding into womanhood. Into the privacy of such reflections, I would be the last to intrude. Little did I think that before the snows of winter fell, the husband and father would slumber beside his loved ones.
On the south side of the way and some rods to the west, is the abode of Morris Wager, who came hither from the preemption road in the spring of 1880. His wife was, in girlhood, Ella Silver of Sodus. Their children are: Rose; Iva; Charles; Myrtle, and Willie, all at home. ( Rose has since become the wife of Wm. D. Hickok.) Mr. W. makes a specialty of raspberry culture.
My earliest recollections of the place are coupled with the name of Samuel B. Hoffman, who had married the widow of Seth Brainard. She was an Ellinwood, Louise, a sister of Geo. W. and Orlando. The Brainards were from Oneida county, and were exemplary members of the Rose Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. B. died in 1842. He was the builder of the house now standing. Mr. Hoffman was also a Methodist and prominent in the councils of the church. Mr. Brainard was a pioneer, though he died in his 38th year.
A few rods further west and we find the road leading south, forming the western boundary of Mr. Wager's farm. Men seventy years of age can remember when the trees were cut off to prepare for the road. The trees were used in building a log house for Elder Smith, the Baptist minister, the same being located on the old Valorus Ellinwood farm, or where Henry Decker now lives.
On both sides of the road are fields belonging to Ensign D. Wade. He followed his father, Dudley, on these acres. The father and family were named in full in the account of District No. 7. Ensign, as there stated, married Kendrick Sheffield's oldest daughter, Lucy. They have two children, Lulu and Frank. It is not impossible that Ensign may some
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day attain to the reputation that his father had in Rose and vicinity. He certainly will if he will only add auctioneering to his vocation. Before Dudley Wade's occupation, this was for many years the Chester Ellinwood farm. He built the house and painted it red. It was changed very little in his day, and here his large family was reared. His wife was Sophronia Allen, a daughter of Ezra, of Butler, who had married a sister of Benj. Kellogg. There were several Allen girls, and, in those early days, extra girls sought service in families where they were not so numerous, so Chester courted his wife in the kitchen of the old Blaine log house, north of Stewart's corners. When they went to keeping house, it was in a primitive structure, near the present home of John Lyman, in the neigh- borhood then called "Peth." This was away back in the twenties, and he carried fruit trees on his back from the Daniel Roe place in Butler to set out here. It is probable that he was born in Vermont, and there he learned the trade of a tanner, at which he worked to some extent after coming to Wayne county. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. This corner farm was bought of Samuel Southwick. On the south side of the road, it included the cemetery lot and joined the Fuller farm on the west. The original log house was near the southwest corner of this burial ground. It caught fire in the early times and smouldered away two days before it was put out. Finally it was taken down and relaid, near where the Wade house now is. In those days there were 140 acres, extending, on the east, to the foot of the hill on Joel Lee's place. The children born to Chester Ellinwood were: Ensign Warren ; Charlotte M., who became the wife of Gibson Center, of Butler, and is now in Weedsport; Lucy Lemira, who married Peter B. Decker, from Newark, and lived in the Valley. Her sons, Charles Ensign and Franklin Pierce, died in infancy ; her daughter, Ellen Irene, married in Washington, Penn. Mrs. Decker died in 1852, at the age of twenty-eight years. Mr. Decker's second wife was a niece of the famous school teacher, Abigail Bunce. Mr. Ellinwood's third daughter, Mary, is the wife of Dr. G. C. Childs, long a noted physician in Clyde ; Charles Judson married Helen F. Gildersleeve, of Galen, and died in 1879, in Grand Rapids, Mich., leaving two children, Frederick and Dolly. Ezra Chester, the youngest son, married Mary E. Phillips, of Newark, and, some years since, located on the old Wisner or Center place, east of Stewart's corners. His oldest child, Irene P., died in 1884, at the age of fourteen years. His remaining children are: Mary Louise, John Clark, Chester and Robert Ensign. If there was one characteristic in these Ellinwoods more prominent than another, it was their love for music. As boys and girls, men and women, they excelled in song. Of Lucy Lemira it is said that on her death bed she picked out those whom she wished to sing at her funeral, not wishing, she said, to have any break- downs over her. Late in life, the elder Ellinwood moved from the farm,
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and died in 1877, at the age of eighty-four years. His wife had died eleven years before. The younger Chester lived here also for a time.
Turning to the north and passing the evaporator of Ensign Wade, we shall find, on the west side of the road, all that is left of the home of Samuel Ellis Ellinwood; in the town he was generally known as Ellis. He came hither from Oneida county, an uncle of Geo. W. Ellinwood, and for several seasons taught school, among other places, at Stewart's cor- ner. His wife was Submit Southwick, a daughter of Samuel S., one of the pioneers of the town. For many years they dwelt here, prospering, and uniformly possessing the highest esteem of all who knew them. They were among the earliest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Rose. Their home passed through the usual changes, from primary sim- plicity to the comfort of later days. They had only one son-David-who for many years dwelt here with his parents. The elder Ellinwoods died in 1879 and 1866 respectively, and lie now in the Rose cemetery. They were first buried in the Ellinwood ground, but when later their grand- daughter, Adele, erected a monument to them and to her parents, their remains were taken up and reburied. David Ellinwood was long prominent in local affairs, a man who liked a good horse and liked to drive him. He married Mary Jane Jones, of the Valley, a sister of Mrs. "Ham" Closs. She was an excellent lady, well worthy of the esteem in which she was held. They had two children-George, who is now in Racine, Wis., and Harriet Adele, who is a teacher in Toledo, Ohio. She was the generous and filial giver of the mortuary tribute standing in the Rose cemetery. David Ellinwood and his wife went west, and died there in 1883 and 1884 respectively.
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