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 4
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Again returning to the Corners we will go south, and first, at our right and near the cross roads, we shall find the home of James Armstrong, whose family we have already described. His house is a new one, taking the place of the first building erected here, which was destroyed by fire in 1882. This farm was first Eaton's, then Aaron Shepard's, from whom it passed to his son-in-law, Thaddeus Collins, 2nd. He sold it to his son, Josephus, who built the house early in war times as a convenience for his hired man. I think its first occupant was Charles Rice, long a resident of the Butler part of the district, being a son of Jonathan Rice. He married Mary Holcomb, also of the Butler portion of No. 7. Her father, those who used to go to school-house meetings will long remember for his fervent prayers and eloquent experiences. After Rice came John Crisler, a brother- in-law of Mr. Collins, his wife being Ruth Livermore from Oneida Co. She is also a sister of Mrs. John B. Roe. He now lives on the Butler side, on the old McKoon place. Wesley Livermore, Mrs. Collins' brother, came next, remaining several years. He now resides near Clyde, following the trade of a carpenter. The place was finally sold to Chauncey Darling, who built a barn and cleared much of the forest back of the house. His successor was Mr. Armstrong, as already stated.
Over the elevation to the southward, we shall find the burial ground, but this, with the school-houses of the district, we shall reserve for the closing article. A little more than half a mile from the corners, on the west side of the road, is the house of Stephen Kellogg. This marks the
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former abode of the first settler, Aaron Shepard. He was a native of New Hartford, Conn., and there married Polly, daughter of Dr. John Wade, who afterward moved to Paris, Oneida Co. His trade was that of a black- smith and traces of his Connecticut shop can still be found. Catching the western fever in 1811, he came to this new country and took up two sec- tions of land lying on both sides of the road, though there was no road then. This land extended from the western border of S. Kellogg's farm to very near the first north and south road in Butler. Just under the hill, back of Mr. Kellogg's house and a little to the south, is a spring of pure, cold water, and here he built his log house, preparatory to bringing out his wife and two girls. His boy he had already laid to rest in the old Town Hill burying ground in New Hartford. Moving in those days was no trivial matter, for the transit was made with an ox team. This was done in the following year, 1812. What a long, tedious journey : staying, when possible, over night in houses; when not possible, camping. A brother, Seth, accompanied him and settled on the farm now occupied by Isaac Lockwood, in Butler. Deacon Shepard, as Aaron S. was usually called, and his wife had peculiarities that will be long retained in memory by all who knew them. He early built a shop, the first in town, and was the horseshoer of the vicinity. I think pieces of forge slag can still be picked up near the road, marking the site of his anvil. When he built his farm barn he hewed planks out of logs to make the floors. These planks, show- ing the gashes of the scoring axe, still serve their original purpose in Mr. Kellogg's great barn. In fact, the barn itself is much as it was when built, seventy years ago, though it has been moved from its first location. As a deacon it was necessary for him to maintain great strictness in demeanor, and he was anxious to secure corresponding staidness from all about him ; but he had in his family once, a lad who tried his deacon's soul in no ordinary manner. This young man would parody " Watts " in this heath- enish way :
" When I can shoot my rifle clear To pigeons in the skies, I'll bid farewell to pork and beans And live on pigeon pies."
How distressing this must have been to the good old man, to whom the hymn book was second in sacredness to the Bible only! However, it was left to the deacon to devise a way of keeping " Young Dud." out of mis- chief during church time, that for originality has no equal. Taking the lad to the shop, he would back him up to the vise and screw the slack of his trowsers therein, taking care to properly secure his hands. I am afraid the boy's ruminations were not on things sacred while he thus stood out the deacon's hours of worship. The old gentleman was one of the original members of the Presbyterian Church in Rose, and long stood high in its
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councils. He first joined the old church located at Port Bay, but which, finally, became the Presbyterian Church of Huron. He died in 1839. If the deacon was peculiar, his wife was more so. The boys of the neighbor- hood, to this day, when forced to the monotonous employment of pulling daisies, will say : " There wouldn't be any of these things here if it weren't for old Granny Shepard." Legend has it that mindful of her surroundings in the Nutmeg State, she thought she must have daisies about her in her new home to make it look natural, and so carried with her a quantity of seed, which she sowed broadcast, and behold the result. Tansy yet grows luxuriantly in the corner of the dooryard, marking the place where she planted the first seed, seventy years ago. Once when her husband was away from home, she directed the hired man to fell a large quantity of tim- ber through the swamp or swale, in order that she might have an unob- structed view, from her pantry window, of the hill-side beyond. How strangely history repeats itself, for I find that the first pastor, Jonathan Marsh, of the church in New Hartford, Conn., directed his parishioners to do just the same thing, that he might, from his parsonage, see his church. The reputation of being the best cook in the neighborhood, I have never heard disputed, and she trained up her own girls and those who lived with her to be equally deserving of praise. She was determined and perti- nacious in her ways, and when a Mormon missionary sat up all night en- deavoring to convert the deacon, she sat up, too, and effectually counter- acted the poison of the enemy. She was liable to spells of hypochondria, when she would send word to her daughter, Mrs. Collins, opposite, that Mrs. C. must come right over, as she was going to die right away. Likely as not, Mrs. C., who knew her mother perfectly, would reply : " I can't, for I am going visiting." Just as quickly as the messenger could return, would go the message : "Just wait a few minutes and I'll go with you." This story is told with much glee by old residents : A certain man in the neighborhood was much disliked by nearly everybody-possibly feared. The old lady shared the common feeling, and seeing him coming one day, she had her screams all ready ; but contrary to expectation he walked di- rectly by. Not to be cheated out of her fright, she sallied forth, shouting: "Zekiel, Zekiel, don't you come in here, I am afraid of you." After a few years, the old log house was given up, and the family moved into the first framed building in the district, constructed before 1820. The town road had been located, and it lay, or ran, some rods east of the house by the side of the spring. There are still living in Rose and Butler very aged people who can recall childhood memories of this pioneer cabin. The new house was a marvel of comfort and elegance for those days. Painted red, it stood with its gable facing the road. The interior was divided into a front room with a wide fireplace, a stairway leading aloft, a pantry and a bedroom on the north side, with a back parlor. The chamber was unfin-
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ished. An immense chimney, while necessary in its day, took up about , one-quarter the space of the entire house. In this shape the building con- tinued till 1855, when it was re-covered, an addition put on the north side and the entire interior altered. The frame is the one put together by the deacon. This change was effected by Rev. A. M. Roe and his wife, a grand-daughter of the first builder, and then the owner of the place. Just south and a little back of the red house stood an unpainted building, some years younger than its more pretentious neighbor. This was built by Mr. Shepard as a residence for his daughter, Harriet, who married Thaddeus Collins, 2nd, of Rose. After their leaving it, it formed a very convenient house for tenants, till its demolition in 1855. The orchard just south of the house and fast going to decay, was the result of seed sown by Mr. Shep- ard many years ago. The marriages of the two daughters of this family have been noticed already. To the daughter (Polly) of Catharine Seelye the place passed on her marriage, and was the home of herself and husband till he became a clergyman. Only once afterward did they reside there, and then for a single year. (They are the parents of four children, Alfred S. of Worcester, Mass .; G. Mortimer of Cincinnati, Ohio ; Charles M. of Syracuse; and S. Addie, who, the wife of the late Dr. Lawrence Johnson of New York, died March 31, 1893. ) It was then sold to Thaddeus Collins, who conveyed it to his younger daughter, Harriet, the wife of. Stephen Kellogg. For nearly thirty years they have lived here, seeing their three boys-William, Levern and Frank-grow to manhood. (Will, married, lives in Manango, No. Dak .; Lavern died in 1887, and rests in the burial ground just to the north; while Frank resides in Covell's Dist. ) It should be added that, after the death of her husband, Mrs. Shepard married Azel Dowd of Huron, and lived, till his death, with Watson Dowd, a son. Afterward her home was with her daughter, Harriet, till her death, which was in 1859.
Nearly opposite is one of the largest, perhaps the very largest house in the district. It is that of Josephus Collins, who inherited from his father, Thaddeus. The first knowledge that I have of the house is that it was built by Charles Richards, who, very likely, purchased of Mr. Shepard. At any rate, Mr. Richards lived here for many years, and managed a distillery located near the spring in the pasture, some rods east of the house. This institution was destroyed by fire before the farm passed out of Richards' possession. Just south of the distillery, in what is now a rich meadow, general trainings were had in the "long ago." The juxtaposition of dis- tillery and training suggests the motive power so common in those days. Near the road was a cider mill, long since dismantled. There were in the Richards family a son and daughter. The latter was courted and married by a Mr. Olmstead, and I have been told that all went to Canada. Thad- deus Collins, 2nd, who purchased of Richards, was born in Vermont, the
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son of Thaddeus Collins, one of the early settlers of this town, and at one time the owner of much of the site of the village of Rose. The latter died in 1828, and is buried in the Rose burial ground. The family was orig- inally from Massachusetts. Thaddeus, 2nd, was born in 1792, and died in 1865. He was a man who always excited and retained the liveliest esteem and regard from all having him in acquaintance. There is now many a man who recalls his boyhood's delight over Mr. Collins' recitals of his own youth- ful adventures with bears and wolves. To be sure, the boy might seek his trundle bed, with hair fairly erect with fear, fancying that the sighing wind was the howl of the wolf, and a chair in the corner, possibly, a bear,-he always came back to the same old stories with unabated zeal and interest. I suppose I have heard him tell a hundred times how he took a stake from a sled, standing near the site of the district burial ground, to repel a possi- ble attack from wolves whose howls he heard when he was on his way home from courting his future wife. A thrill of sadness comes over me as I reflect that husband and wife have long slept, side by side, in the in- closure over which crept, years ago, the prowling wolf. They are alike oblivious to the howl of the ravening beast and the tears of their mourning friends. Mrs. Collins survived her lamented husband nearly nine years, dying July, 1874. As I recall them, they were almost my ideal pair. I cannot forget Mr. Collins' testimony in the old school-house meetings, when, rubbing his hands together, he would say : " I feel that it is good to be here." Then, too, his wife's recital of her own conversion is vividly recalled. They were of the salt of the earth. Perhaps people have gone from their doors hungry, but I never knew an instance. An amusing anecdote of Mrs. Collins' discernment is told as follows : A short time after her husband's death, an aged widower, quite infirm, called on her, obviously with the intention of proposing marriage, thinking no doubt that her home would be a very comfortable haven in his decrepitude. Finally, after beating about the bush, he presented his cause, having abso- lutely nothing to offer but his enfeebled self. Mrs. Collins, readily discov- ering his object, sent him to the right-about quick, saying that she had enough to do to take care of herself without taking in any cripples. Gather- ing up his crutches the old gentleman made haste to carry his wares to more favorable markets. Four children grew to maturity. The oldest, Columbus, married Lovina, daughter of Joel Lee of Rose, and, a farmer, lived at different times in Rose, Butler, Huron and Wolcott-dying in the latter place several years since from a most distressing accident. Catha- rine married Hudson Wood of Butler, and was a most efficient companion to him for many years. She died in 1884. Her second daughter, Frank, is the wife of George G. Roe of Clyde. Josephus married Polly Livermore of Oneida county, and has successfully managed his farm during these many years: His oldest child, Ida, is the wife of Rev. Wm. Winget of the
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Free Methodist Church. (Now of Buffalo, N. Y.) Mr. Winget is Huron born, just on the confines of Rose, at York settlement. Newton is a prom- inent physician in Rochester, while Jimmy, a lad, is yet at home. Harriet, the youngest daughter of Thaddeus, has already been mentioned as the wife of Stephen Kellogg.
The next place is that of Henry Chatterson, received from his father, Abram, and he inheriting from Betts Chatterson, the first comer of the name. This name, in its Dutch purity, was Chadderdon, but Aunt Laney, as everybody called her, a sister of Abram, determined to change it, and to compass this transformed the d's in the old family Bible, considerably more than a hundred years old, into t's and s's. Early in the century this place was the home of Daniel Lounsberry, who, going west, sold to Moses Wisner, whose three daughters - Sarah, Elizabeth and Charlotte, it is noteworthy, married three brothers-Austin, Willis and Brewster Roe, of Butler. Wisner sold to Isaac Mills and moved to Penfield, Monroe Co., and there died. Mills went west, after selling to Betts Chatterson. This family was from Columbia county, and was of great originality of speech. Commenting on the Scriptural statement that when the iron is blunt then must he put to more strength, Mr. Chatterson said: "Strange that he didn't know enough to sharpen the knife." He died in 1851, aged eighty- seven. "Aunt Laney" (Helen) was one of the most peculiar characters of the neighborhood. She had in her girlhood learned how to make artificial flowers, and this formed her chief occupation through life, though she was joint inheritor with Abram of the farm. When very aged she went once to Glenmark to have some wool carded. The mechanic, mean- ing no discourtesy, but still desirous of knowing her age, politely asked her the question. Her ready reply, snapped out in her quick speech, was : " Old enough to mind my own business." For some time before her death she was totally blind, but it was not till near the very end that she would grant that her sight was seriously impaired. As she was born in 1785, she must have been nearly ninety years old at her death. Her brother, Abram, was a genius, as all who knew him will concede. How he did like to play upon the fife, and into what ecstasies, almost, would he pass when, with closed eyes, he would extract those ear-piercing notes from the little wood instrument. Old Yankee Doodle himself, at Bunker Hill, was not half so enthusiastic. I should like to see the boy of the neighborhood who has no pleasant remembrance of "Abe" Chatterson's fife playing. He, too, was quick in speech, and his replies were often quite out of the general order. Not satisfied with acceding to a request with all of his heart, he would, quite likely, generously throw in a piece of his liver. Born in 1803, he died in 1881. He was twice married: 1st, to - -, and 2d, to Ruth Goffe, the mother of his sons. His children were: Sarah, who married Edward Stickles; Josephine, Wm. 3
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Olmstead; Louisa (Mrs. Spencer), John P .; these three live in Greene county, and Henry, the older of the boys, who retains the old place. During the Rebellion he was for two years in the 27th N. Y. Regiment, and then going west served till the end in a Wisconsin regiment. He went with Sherman on his march to the sea. Perhaps no Rose boy has a better military record. His wife is Addie Waldron, whom he married in 1870. (Mrs. Chatterson died Dec. 27, 1891, aged 43 years, leaving two sons, George- and Louis. ) As tenants, for a time, Isaac and Abram Phillips have lived in the Chatterson house. They were cousins of Abram C., and came from the Hudson river country. Isaac had three sons - William, Horace and Frank-all residents of Wolcott. William was postmaster during Presi- dent Cleveland's first term. Isaac Phillips died in Wolcott, Nov. 1, 1889, in his 75th year.
Going back a few rods to the west side of the road thirty or more years ago, we should have seen a little unpainted building with no land to spare about it, yet every inch utilized. Across the road, the wonder of every school boy, was a cellar built above ground. The edifice itself was the old distriet school-house, which became a dwelling house when the stone- building was erected. Let us enter. There is a very small, narrow entry, from which, at our left, a door leads into the single room constituting the interior. In one corner we shall find a shoemaker's kit, and, pegging away most diligently, old " Uncle Tipple," who, with his neat Dutch wife, is a dweller here. On a tombstone in the burial ground, I read the follow- ing : "Jacob Tipple, died April 1, 1853, aged 66 years." Yet his wife is living to-day, the oldest person, I suppose, in the town. On the 30th day of last July, she was ninety-nine years old. A few days before, it was my pleasure to take her by the hand and to recall the days when I, a small boy, thought her a very old woman. She lives west of the Valley with her daughter, Mrs. Abram Phillips. Though bowed with the weight of years, her mind is clear and her eye bright. I confidently expect to see her pass her centennial mile post. How she laughed when I described my boyish impression of her home in the old school-house. Those two beds so high and smooth ; so high that I couldn't see how any one could reach them, and if, by any means, he should get to the top, how could he dare to muss or rumple such immaculate surfaces. What a pattern of neatness! Uncle Tipple always furnished early cabbage plants for the entire neighborhood. The Tipples had two children, Eliza M., to be met later in the Covell district as Mrs. Abram Phillips, and Philip, who died many years ago. Following Mr. Tipple's death in 1853, his widow went to dwell with her daughter, and the house became the property of Mr. J. B. Roe, who moved it away and made of it one of his out-buildings. (In 1887, July 30, many friends helped Mrs. Tipple celebrate her centennial at the home of Mrs .. Phillips, west of the Valley. She survived till July 7, 1888. )
JOHN B. ROE. AUSTIN M. ROE.
AUSTIN ROE.
ALFRED S. ROE.
GEORGE G. ROE.
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Near at hand, on the south, is the home identified with the name of Roe since 1833. Before that time, it was the property of Pendar Marsh, who, with his brother, Amos, on the adjoining farm south, came with the Shepards from New Hartford, Ct., descendants of that clergyman who wanted the forest cut from his home to the church. Pendar Marsh, for a time afterward, lived on one of the Briggs places further south, and then, with Seth Shepard, went to Michigan. Austin Roe, a younger brother of Daniel Roe, one of the pioneers of Butler, was born in Connecticut in 1782. After the death of his mother, in 1832, he made haste to move his family, by the process of river and canal travel, to this, to him, remote region. For generations his family had lived on Long Island; his own birth in Connecticut being the result of Revolutionary broils, as his parents were driven thence by hostile Tories. Island farming was not encouraging, and having discharged his filial duty to his parents, he moved his family of wife and six children to Wayne county. Devotedly religious, it was a source of great pleasure to his relatives after his death to find his exhorter's and local preacher's licenses, extending over quite forty years. Hard of hearing for many years, he makes a very pleasant part of one's mental picture of the services in the old school-house. The minister in his desk was not more prominent than Father Roe, as he sat in a chair, close by, that he might lose no word of the discourse. Then, when the sermon was ended, how he commanded the rapt attention of all listeners as he recounted God's love to him and his. He died, full of years, in 1864, though he would doubtless have lived much longer (his Butler brother died at ninety) had he not given way to excessive grief over the death of his wife, Sarah, who died the preceding September. She was his own cousin, a native of Long Island, and had most faithfully attended him along life's pathway. Recently meeting a gentleman on the Pacific coast, the writer was much pleased to hear him say that Mrs. Roe came nearer the perfect woman than any being he had ever seen. Through years of acquaintance, he had never seen her temper in the least ruffled. After the marriage of their son, John, they, for a time, lived in a house nearly opposite, a little south, standing where Merritt McKoon's house now is. Afterward they returned to the old home and formed a part of J. B. Roe's family to the end of their lives. When Mr. Roe bought the farm, there was upon it the usual log house. This was supplanted, in 1838, by the present roomy and pleasant structure. The great butternut trees in front of the house, the largest in the vicinity, were set out by Mr. Marsh ; but one or two of them have succumbed to the tooth of time. Daniel J., the eldest son, married Ann Tillow, a sister of Mrs. Isaac Mills, the neighbors opposite, and soon removed to Michigan, where he now lives at the age of seventy-four. Catharine married Sheldon R. Overton, for years a near neighbor, but who now lives in Wolcott. (Died, 1887.) Eliza married
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George Stafford and resides with her daughter, Sarah, in Ohio. (Died, 1889.) John B. was twice married ; first, to Roxana Sours of Huron. Her children were Merwin S. of Syracuse, and George G. of Clyde. (Who besides managing his extensive carriage business, has been, since 1890, the highly successful postmaster in that village.) His second marriage was to Eunice Livermore of Oneida county, who survives him and man- ages the old farm. Her children are Alice C., the wife of Henry T. Lee of Clyde, and Ottie E., the wife of Stephen Soule, also of Clyde. Mr. Roe was a model farmer and a most respected member of the community, but whose ambition was in excess of his strength, bringing him to his grave at the comparatively early age of sixty-six. Rev. Austin M., already stated, married Polly C. Seelye, and lives in Fulton, N. Y. The youngest child, Fanny, is the wife of Timothy R. Smith of Clyde. Their only surviving child is Duke, a teacher of music in that place. Chas. Freeman, born in Rose, became a member of Austin Roe's family at an early age, and remained so till nearly or quite of age. For the past twenty-four years he has resided in Portland, Oregon. He is now cashier of the Oregon R. R. & Navigation Co. (For several years the farm has been cultivated by Charles W. Hurter, a native of Rose, whose wife is Delilah Barager, born in Canada. Their only son, Willie, has marked musical talents. The family. like that of Mr. Roe, is connected with the M. E. Church.)
Across the road a gate opens into a lane separating the Chatterson and . McKoon farms. This was once a public way ; but to my knowledge there never was more than one house upon it. This was the log home of "Sammy " Jones, a stone mason by trade, whose deep and lasting pota- tions few neighbors can forget. One of his daughters became the second wife of Dr. John Dickson. Jones' first wife was, years ago, buried in the district cemetery, and when afterward he took to himself another spouse, it gave rise to the most noted " horning " that ever took place in the town. All the young men of the vicinity united to do the business up in style. Before beginning their concert, they called the roll, and no little amuse- ment was created at the names to which somebody vociferously responded " here." The worthy names of Roe, Collins, Seelye and Kellogg were all answered to, although Austin, Thaddeus, George and John little knew the liberty that the boys were taking with their titles. Such discord was never in town before nor since. Horns, horse fiddles, guns and yells made the night dissonant. Finally, the house itself was attacked and entered, the frightened inmates fleeing in utter terror. The house was not razed, but there was left scarcely one whole piece of crockery on the premises. He laughs best who laughs last, and when the " boys " paid the bills engen- dered by that night's fun, their smiles came, as we say, out of the other corner of their mouths. Several years ago Mr. Jones went to Michigan to live with a son, his farm being merged in the MeKoon place. He has since died.
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