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 6
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logg married Betsey Westcott of a prominent Butler family. Following Ethan B. Kellogg on the old homestead came Willard Peck and then Wm. B. Kellogg, John's oldest son, who here began his married life. He sold to Oliver Colvin, the present owner. Mr. Colvin is a native of Kingsbury, Washington county, and his wife, who is Jane, née Seelye, was born in Moreau, Saratoga county. She is an own cousin of the late George and Delos Seelye. Mr. Colvin's brother, Dr. Nathan, was for many years a noted physician in Clyde. After several removals, he, Oliver, settled upon a farm south of Clyde, where he resided till 1855, when he was struck with a migrating fever, which prompted him to sell and go to Virginia. This trip he made with his family in almost old-fashioned emigrant style, in that he drove there, though they did not camp when night overtook them, but sought the shelter of some hospitable roof. He located in Spott- sylvania county, where his youngest child, Clara Virginia, was born. His place was two miles from Fredericksburg, and, had he remained there, his home would have been in the very theatre of the late war. As it was, life in the south was distasteful to himself and all his family, so, after a three years' trial, he returned and soon bought where we now find him. Mr. and Mrs. Colvin have reared a very large family, only one member of which has died, and she, Cornelia, a wife and mother. As Mrs. Stratton, she had lived some years in California before her death. The two older sons, Thomas and Augustus, have long resided in the Golden State. (Augustus died March 3, 1892, aged 56 years, in Jacksonville, Oregon.) Sidney, who was a lieutenant in the 9th Heavy Artillery, after the war was over married Electa Powers and went to the Pacific coast. He now lives at Lake View, Oregon. Elizabeth is the wife of Clark Sanders of Waterloo. Narcissa is well known in Rose as the wife of Eugene Hickok. Asahel, a good soldier in the 111th N. Y., lost an arm at Petersburg. He married Annette, daughter of Daniel Soper, and lives in Wolcott. Pitt, now a druggist in Rochester, has been twice married-first to Mary Ann LaDue of Wolcott, and second to Alice Seelye of Brockport. Frank married Giles M. Winchell of Wol- cott, who now manages the farm. Clara is the wife of Harvey L. Dickin- son, once of Rose, now of Idaho, though just at present, for his health, he is in Salt Lake City. (Later in Washington.) For fifteen or twenty years Mr. Colvin made cider for the people in Rose and Butler, averaging, he tells me, one thousand barrels a year. No resident of the district ever had a merrier nature, or drew more enjoyment from life as it passed. His amiable wife has kept him excellent company in all this journey. Time would not suffice to tell all his pranks, but one that he and Mrs. C. often laugh over was his bringing home, soon after they were married, a small owl, which he handed to her, saying: "Here, Jane, is a bird I have brought you for supper." "It's a nice one," says she ; "a partridge, I think." So she proceeded to fricassee the same, much to Mr. Colvin's delight. It
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required long boiling, and even when cooked, Mrs. Colvin remarked the exceeding blueness of the meat, which she could not induce her liege lord to taste, and before she had eaten much he enlightened her as to the char- acter of the bird she had been stewing. Query-Is this incident the origin of people claiming, when blue and used up, to feel like a " biled owl ? " In early life Mr. Colvin rode on the packet that formed a part of the tri- umphal progress through the state, on the opening of the Erie canal. From Lockport to Troy, he was one of those who accompanied Gov. Clin- ton on his way from Lake Erie to tide water. He states that cannon were stationed every ten miles to signal the starting of the boats. When the firing had reached the Hudson, the return salute was fired back to Buffalo, the time employed being four hours. Few of Mr. Colvin's acquaintances can fail to tell of his quaintness in repartee, and I am reminded of the reply he made to old Mrs. S., who, always anxious about what didn't concern her, once said : " La, Mr. Colvin! why, where have you been? " " To the Valley." " What have you been there for? " " To see a pig shaved with a hand saw." Exit old lady in a hurry. As the shadows lengthen, these two old people watch the sunset of life, seeing in the past more of pleasure than sorrow, and complacently contemplating the life beyond which awaits us all. (Mr. Colvin died Oct. 9, 1892.) (Mr. Winchell is of a Hannibal family, and is an excellent farmer. To him and his wife have been born two children, Fred and Laura.)
Toward the south, on the west side of the road, we find a house fast going to ruin. It is many years since the owner dwelt in it, and during this time a long line of tenants has moved in and out. The first owner whom I can find was Joseph Brewster, whose wife was a sister of Uncle "Sammy " Jones, and he sold to Samuel Thompson. The latter's wife was Abigail Wainwright. Mr. T. died in 1852 and Mrs. T. in 1851. Both are buried in the district cemetery. They had six children, who married as follows : Clarissa, William Ellinwood, who lived but a short time and she afterward married William Sherman ; Cordelia married Charles Warren ; more than thirty years ago George Thompson went to sea and no trace of him has ever been had. What unwritten tragedy this long silence covers, we can only conjecture. He was a young man of stalwart frame and great physical strength. Eliza married Horace Peck ; Edwin, noted years ago as a musician at country dances, married Emeline Cobb. He is now living with a second wife in Watkins, N. Y .; Camilla, a maiden lady, in whose name the property stands, lives in Wolcott. Edwin and Eliza Thompson were married on the same evening by Elder Ladd, of the Valley. Then followed the very worst horning spree that ever this region had known up to that time. The boys were mounted and the line extended from the Colvin farm to Thompson's. The clergyman begged to be let out, that he might get away from the din and noise. Among the dwellers in
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this house, after the death of Mr. Thompson, may be named Charles Warren, George Rice, Jackson Terbush, Daniel Soper, Ensign Wade, Giles M. Winchell, John Meehan, George Lasher, Murrill Burch and, lastly, William De Voe. The first owner, Brewster, finally died in Clyde. He was doubtless from Saratoga county. Patrick Burke now leases the farm.
Crossing the road and going a few rods southward, we find the house of William B. Kellogg. The farm is a part of his Grandfather Benjamin's purchase from Fellows and McNab. John Kellogg bought it in 1837, and here lived until his death in 1876. His wife has already been mentioned as Betsey Westcott. To the neighborhood she was known as " Aunt Betsey," and when she made a visit she was always welcome ; then came merry times. Her prevailing characteristic of jolly good nature she imparted in no small degree to all her children. Full of years she died, after a brief illness, in the fall of 1886. Her oldest child, Almira, married Alonzo Hubbard, of Butler, and died at the early age of twenty-eight. William B. married, in 1853, Eliza Tyler, and lives upon the old place ; his only son, John, married Anna Valentine and lives in Clyde. Stephen B. married, in 1854, Harriet Collins and lives on the old Shepard farm in Rose. Permilla became, in 1843, the wife of E. Willard Sherman, one of Charles Sherman's sons, and resides in Clyde. Paulina died at the age of sixteen, in 1851. Allie married, in 1877, Duane LaDue and lives at Warner's Station, Onondaga Co. When John Kellogg bought this farm it was a dense wilderness. He gave seven dollars an acre for it. Clearing up the land he built a log house, and in it all his children, save Allie, were born. He afterward built the present house and barns. In the possession of the Kellogg family from the beginning, let us leave the farm with the wish that it may remain with the same family in perpetuo. (Now the property and residence of Patrick Burke and family.)
The very last farm to be noted in this school district is that across the road, just to the south. Here, early in the century, 1817, came Wm. McKoon and his helpmeet, Lucy Cole. Mr. McKoon was born in Rhode Island ; but when an infant, in 1794, his parents came to Columbia, Her- kimer county. Thence he made the trip with ox team to Wayne county. When he reached what was to be his future home, he had just fifty cents. With this he purchased an axe and a half bushel of Indian meal. He was a true pioneer, and brought his farm up from the very beginning of primi- tive forest. His log house stood some rods back of the present house, and after his building of the framed structure, it passed through the usual degradations of barn and pig pen to final dissolution. To grind his corn, he cut down a tree and hollowing out the stump, had a samp mortar of the most substantial character. He had but three children. Mairetta has already been noted as the wife of Charles Kellogg. Jairus married Rachel A. Merritt of Savannah. Rhoba married Elihu Spencer of Butler, and
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moved to Appleton, Wisconsin. Wm. McKoon is one of the most note- worthy characters who, in the early days, settled in these parts. Always a man of sterling integrity, he became a minister of the Methodist denomi- nation, and for several years preached under the direction of the presiding elder. At the time when anti-slavery excitement ran high, he left the old church for the Wesleyans, but finally affiliated with the Disciples, in whose communion he died in 1870. Mr. McKoon had a remarkable ancestry, being sixth in descent from Roger Williams, and twelfth from Martin Luther. For some years previous to his death, he had lived in South Butler ; but his body was brought to sleep with his kindred and friends in the Collins cemetery. Many years ago, he planted five Lombardy poplars on the road-side south of his residence. They can be seen, located as they are on the top of a ridge, from points many miles away. There is scarcely a hill-top within a radius of ten miles whence these five mighty fingers, pointing heavenward, may not be seen. I have noted trees of this variety in all parts of this Union, but my eyes never rest on the long tapering form of a Lombardy poplar without having my thoughts revert to this row on the hill, and I think how proudly they stood out between me and the morning sun, and when the western sun was hastening to its setting, how glorious were these trees gilded with golden light. No one fortunate. enough to have been born in sight of these trees, will ever forget them, nor cease to be grateful to Wm. McKoon for planting them. Jairus McKoon succeeded his father upon the farm and here reared his family of four children. Merritt G. married L. Estelle Seelye, and lives in the old Geo. Seelye homestead ; Hattie, who married Isaac Lockwood, died in November, 1885, leaving five children, Lida, Ada, M. Burt, Irene and Hattie ; Charles married Jennie Terry and is now in Michigan ; Ida became the wife of Jarit Wickwire, and lives in Rose. About 1865 Jairus McKoon sold to his sister, Widow Kellogg, who thus came back to the home of her childhood. Mr. McKoon moved to the next farm southward, and there died in September, 1885. His widow is there now with her son-in-law, Isaac Lockwood. (Mr. L. died December 19, 1887, being supervisor of Butler at the time. ) Mrs. K. sold to Josephus Collins, and he to his brother-in-law, John Crisler, who now holds the place. His wife is Ruth, née Livermore. Their only daughter, Mamie, is now a pupil in the State Normal School at Oswego. By his first wife, Mr. C. had Cora, wife of Daniel Harper of Rose ; Nelson, who married Mary Stone, and Evander. (Mr. C. died January 17, 1892, aged 68 years. Mamie was married June 29, 1893, to Melville Terwilliger of Walden, N. Y. Nelson lives in Wolcott, and Evander in Rose. The place is now occupied by Chauncey Darling and family.)
4
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Thus we have traversed the district, running the record through fully seventy years, and there yet remains only to mention some of the peculiari- ties of the school which the children of this vicinity constituted. All were farmers' progeny, and all except the families of the Dudley Wade and George Seelye houses brought their dinners in pail or basket, and he who has never generated an appetite, sitting on the hard benches of a country school-house, can have no idea of the flavor of that same dinner now so carefully packed away by mother's hands in that two-quart pail. Many a time during the forenoon his eyes stray from book to shelf, where his pail with scores of others reposes. At recess he treats himself to an apple lunch, but when noon comes, how he throws himself outside of that nice bread and butter, the hard boiled egg, the small piece of cold meat, and then, reserved to the very last, how that triangularly shaped bit of apple pie disappears down his throat. Then putting the pail back upon the shelf, he drinks long and deep from the old wooden pail standing on a bracket just between the end of the desk and the door. The dipper is rusty, but he doesn't care. He is not at all fastidious. All drink from the same dish, and then, with a whoop and a bound, they are out of the door and ready for play. What fun the youngsters had at recess! Sum- mer afforded excellent facilities for playing horse, and many a nailless, bleeding toe attested the speed and carelessness of the gait. This sport was for the boys of course; but the girls were not idle. Sometimes, in spells of unwonted gallantry, the boys would bring boards, rails and brush, to build for their sisters strange and fantastic houses, in which the sweet damsels would arrange large quantities of broken dishes which they had brought from home. Future generations will wonder if once there was a pottery in the vicinity, and all this went well for the girls until their brothers, returning to their native barbarism, would make a fierce incur- sion and level to the dust the result of many hours of labor. A steep bank with friable soil afforded the children of both sexes excellent oppor- tunity for grist mills, a chance which they were not slow to embrace, and with sticks thrust through the soil they sawed away, sending down a stream of sand flour, until Uncle Thad. Collins' farm seemed in danger of running into the road. Winter brought a merry season. The boys still played horse, but they loved better to divide into rival parties and to snow ball, claiming for their respective sides those who were hit by the pasty mass. Then, too, they threw balls over the school-house, accom- panied by a stereotyped cry of " Aily, aily over," and this the school- master within would hear during the moments of recess or noon. Over the fence, in Dudley Wade's field, they would mark out paths for "fox and geese," and here the boys and girls could play together. Further still down the lot was a low place where a little skating and more sliding were afforded, and clear over the hill, close by the fence, were several elm
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trees, whose slippery bark afforded material for hours of rumination. Occa- sionally, some daring boys would steal away from the school-house to get tamarack gum from Sherman's swamp, where now I suppose so many onions are raised, and on their return would stand, like Trojans, the threshings which the irate master was sure to give. The gum they passed around among the girls, in whose eyes these truants were heroes. By way of variety, when the school-master had gone to dinner, the boys-and it is strange how near the average boy-nature lies to the savage state-would set upon a certain necessary building and tip it completely over. Then getting it in position, they would roll it over and over, accompanying this mischief with yells that would have done credit to their brother Comanches in western wilds. If, at this time, Uncle Dudley Wade or Uncle Delo's Seelye should happen along, then was the fun fairly bewildering, for, added to the devastation, was the impotent rage of the wrathful tax-payer. Divided as the district is into two nearly equal portions, it was a common thing for the Butler boys to array themselves against those of Rose. Then Greek met Greek and fierce was the onslaught. At the close of school, how dinner pails were banged against offending heads! How missiles of all descriptions flew, while timorous sisters stood around and tearfully begged their irate brothers to " stop and come home." Strange that with so much fighting there were so few hurt. Occasionally, self-appointed champions would undertake to settle deep-seated, long-standing wrongs, and the tales of the encounter long stirred the blood of the boyish listener. There were few boys who did not have their turn at the foe; but perhaps no battle was fiercer than that which the Butler Hector, J. R., waged with the Rose Achilles, G. G. R. Just what the provocation was, the careful historian has not chronicled, but of the fact of the battle there is no doubt. Long and fierce was the fray-sanguine, too, for noses and faces bore witness to the earnestness of the warriors. Their respective parties, or shall I say armies ? were ranged in admiring, not to say awe-struck, silence. The air was full of hair and active combatants. It was said that it was impossible to tell east from west, so close and vigorous was the fray. Unfortunately, either the return of the teacher, or the calling of school, put an end to this terrible contest, and I can not record a victory' for either side. So, in the school history, it must go down as a drawn battle. All this was in the days of the stone school-house. It is possible that in later days, since the advent of the wooden building, many of the asperities and hardnesses of the olden time have disappeared with the edifice in which they generated. Let us hope so.
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SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 5.
Sept. 8-Oct. 13, 1887.
This district, located to the south and west of No. 7, is known in home parlance as the Town district, from the families of that name that have from the very first settlements lived in the neighborhood. It lies mainly along a north and south road, running at the foot and on the west side of the long hill just south of the old Delos Seelye farm. As we turn into this road, we soon find a small house with barn near at hand. Here lives Stephen Chapin, who, several years ago, came from Huron, bought a few acres of the Egbert Soper place, and put up these buildings. He also ran a blacksmith shop for some years. He has a family of five daughters. (Mr. C.'s wife was an Eldridge of Butler. Their daughters are Hattie [Mrs. Gardner Harper], Mary, Irene, Blanche and Kittie.)
Still further along, fairly nestling under the hill, is an abode, which, with its predecessors, runs back nearly or quite fifty years. In a former series, reference was made to certain houses built upon the very summit of the high eminence. One of them, that of Rhodes, slid, as it were, down to the site of the old Soper house-the other, Mr. Gould's as gracefully descended on the other side and rested where James Benjamin now resides. Following Mr. G., who went down to the Clyde road, came a Mr. Swift, who sold to Sheldon R. Overton, son-in-law of Austin Roe .. Here several of Mr. O.'s children, as Laura and Clarissa, were born. Mr. Overton, who, we may remark in passing, died in April last in Wolcott, sold to Isaac Curtis, a Long Islander. His wife, a Soper, was a second cousin of Mr. Overton. Here Mr. Curtis died, and Egbert Soper, a brother- of his wife, succeeded. Mrs. Curtis, with her three children, returned to Long Island. Mr. Soper, as a dweller on the Pierce place, we have already mentioned. Once more we find Wm. Sherman in possession, and then Milton Town followed. He was a son of Silas Town, and married Clarinda, daughter of Lyman Lee. They began here their married life, and here their only son, Lewis, was born. Mr. Town, some years since, sold his place to its present owner and moved north to the Philetus Cham- berlain farm. From there he moved to the Valley, and, in 1882, died. He- is buried in what is called the Ellinwood burial ground on the road to the village. His widow and son reside at Rose Valley. James Benjamin, who is one of the family so long identified with the south part of the town,. although his father, Henry, did not move here, married Mary Comstock, and has two children, Grant and Grace, both at home. Mr. Benjamin was a good soldier in the 111th. (Mrs. Benjamin died in 1887.)
The next farm has buildings upon both sides of the road, and the farm itself is divided by the road. The house, that of Charles Deady, is on the
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west side. To this place came, many years since, John Quackenboss Deady, from Cambridge, Washington Co. He first located on the Lackey farm toward Clyde, but, buying out a claim here, he made his payment to the Land Office, and so may rank as an original proprietor. His wife was Susan Waters, who, at the age of two years, had been brought by her father, James, from Maryland. He died near Alloway, town of Lyons. Mr. Deady reared a large family of children, one of whom, John Henry, met a violent death, one of the few recorded in this quiet neighborhood. His team ran away on the steep hill-side and he was thrown out, receiving injuries so severe that he lived only a few moments. No incident in the history of the district or vicinity ever gave a more terrible shock, and still, old people warn younger ones to be careful, by recounting this untimely death. His oldest son, Thomas, married Esther A. Garratt, and died in 1847, aged twenty-seven years. Elizabeth became Mrs. Van Dusen, and died in Alton in 1886. James, living west of the Valley, took for his wife Carrie Swift, of the family that once lived on the farm to the northward. Margaret was named in the former letters as the wife of Egbert Soper and lives in Westbury. Mary married Henry Decker and lives in Stewart's district. Charles holds the homestead and has been twice married. His first wife was Henrietta Swart, of Detroit, Mich .; his second, Louise Guthrie. He has four children-one by his first and three by his second wife. (June Deady is Mrs. Wm. Barrett in Montana; Edith, Mrs. Edward Martin of Rose; Estelle, Mrs. Merritt Bennett of Wolcott; Grover C. is the boy at home.) The youngest member of the family is William, and the resident in Rose who does not know "Bill" Deady must be entirely devoid of enterprise. For many years he resided in Rose Valley; but recently he has taken up his abode in Lyons-his business, that of a speculator. A summer home at Charles' Point affords him and his a pleasant respite from harvest heat. His wife is Jeannette Jeffers, who has made him the happy father of three boys and an equal number of girls. John Q. Deady was a man of great energy and industry. This was evident in his twice paying for his farm. He was one of the unfortunate men who committed them- selves to the Clyde Bank, founded on the farms of the adjoining towns, and which went to the wall. Men who had been considered independent found themselves poor. Instead of repining and sinking under his misfortune, he manfully went to work, and before he died beheld his acres again free from incumbrance. (Well known in this part of Rose, Mr. Frank Sager, a native of Albany county, has been for several years an aid to the farmers on this street. His latest home is with Mr. James Benjamin.)
All the farms along this road are divided by it. They run eastward just over the ridge of the hill and to the west, well up to the summit of the range of hills whose westward slope takes us down to the Clyde and Valley road. The next place is the one that Silas Town reclaimed from the
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wilderness. Asa and Silas Town came to this section from Paris, Oneida Co., but they were natives of Winchendon, Worcester Co., Mass. They were accompanied by their sister, Lavinia, who many years ago returned to Oneida county. She was the last survivor of a family of eleven children, reaching the great age of more than ninety-three years at death. The least age attained by any one of the children was fifty-nine, while the average age of all at death was beyond seventy-six. They were of the very straightest sect of the Puritans, and from the father, Absalom, down, nearly all the children had Bible names. An ancestor of the Towns had lived in Salem, Mass., and there in the troublous days of witchcraft excite- ment two of his sisters were hanged as witches. Another was accused and escaped only by the allaying of the delusion which had so long possessed the people. Mr. Town's children tell me that he often told them stories of witchery, and when we reflect that his mother, who died at the age of one hundred and six, was born in 1747, we see that her childhood was within sixty years of the excitement itself, and eye-witnesses of the horrors of Gallows Hill must have narrated to her the infamies of Cotton Mather's day. By these long lives of two individuals, we bridge over the interval of nearly two hundred years. The brothers, Asa and Silas, took up their land, one hundred and fifty acres, from Fellows and McNab, and cleared away the forest. This must have been about 1817. Silas married Polly Seelye, a daughter of Lewis Seelye, and niece of Joseph Seelye, in whose family she had lived many years. Their children were Emily, who married William Vandereof, of the Valley, where, with her son, Clarence E., she still lives. Her husband died in 1885. Milton, as we have already seen, married Clarinda Lee. Sarah married first John Vandereof, brother of William. He died in 1861. Since then she has married Asa Plumb and lives in Macedon. Her only son, Elvin, lives in Rose on the Joel Lee farm- Mary married Joel Lee and lives on the Lyman Lee place in Stewart's dis- trict. Lewis, who had engaged in the mercantile business in Clyde, died greatly regretted, in 1853, at the early age of twenty-three. Lucy married George Howland, of Rose. He died in 1869. Eugene married Ellen Norris, of New York, and succeeded his father upon the farm, the latter dying in 1873, aged eighty-seven. His wife died in 1882, at the age of eighty. Eugene followed his father, in 1881, and his widow, who subse- quently married Ellery Davis, now lives on the place. Her two children by Eugene Town are May Evelina and Norris. (May E. is Mrs. Wm. Graham of Galen.)
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