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 9
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affairs over to his son, Jarit, better known as "Jet," who married Ida, daughter of Jairus McKoon of Butler. By his first wife, Mary Brown, he had Matilda, who is now the wife of Lucian Osgood of the Valley. ( Mr. W. died Aug. 1, 1888, and is buried in the Rose cemetery.)
On this road it remains only to mention a little event happening some years ago-for the next house, the old home of Joseph Seelye, is in District No. 7. Very near the border line is an old beech tree, on the west side of the way and close to the wall. I doubt whether more scars or initials can be found on any equal amount of surface in the town. That smooth expanse of bark was a greater temptation than any boy with a pocket knife could withstand, and so he cut his own name, and then the initials of the girl he thought he loved, and so on till the devoted tree is like the aged hemlock mentioned by the Indian chief, Shenandoah, " dead at the top." The old tree must soon follow the men who have rested beneath its shade and, like them, moulder back. But I did not stop at the tree to moralize; it was to see two boys coming at a break-neck pace from the north. They are on their father's horses, and are on their way home from Van Antwerp's blacksmith shop, where the old gentleman has renewed the iron shoes while the boys switched flies. Did you ever see two boys who could resist the temptation to race, particularly if they were young, wiry, farmer boys ? Who gave the stump I cannot tell ; perhaps the boys themselves cannot, but there they are, coming at the top of their speed. They are yelling and lashing their beasts, each determined to reach the swamp first. They run neck by neck. Merwin's. " old Doll " is an excel- lent horse, but " Sol's " white mare keeps well along. Who would have won, I cannot state, for here, right by the tree, Sol's horse stumbled and threw her rider completely over her head. The boy is stunned and uncon- scious, and friends labored long and anxiously over him. Doubtless as he convalesced, he heard many lectures on the sinfulness of horse racing, and the dangers incident thereto. The boy thus thrown became a major before the close of the Rebellion. Then he sat his steed better.
We must now retrace our steps to the road which turns westward and then twists southward in its peculiar direction, a reminder of the early settlers who laid out roads without chart or compass, and sometimes, one might think, followed a cow. Be this as it may, as we swing around the turn and get well started on the Valley road, if we look sharp through the apple trees, lilac bushes and shrubbery, we shall find a small house, which for nearly or quite thirty years has stood in the name of J. J. Seelye, better known in Rose as "Jud." Some years since, with his son, Ernest, he went to Sully county, Dakota, where he now is. His wife, who was Frank Osgood, remains on the place. Ernest O. married, first, Mattie Chase of Hamilton, niece of Mrs. Kendrick Sheffield, and, after her death, united his fortunes with those of Edith, daughter of Winfield Chaddock, deceased.
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Together with her mother, they set forth for their home in the extreme west, and are trying to make the prairie bud and blossom. George S., the younger son, who married Alice Leaton, and for a while lived at this home, has also gone to Dakota. It was here that Mr. Seelye made his first essay at farming and housekeeping. He set out trees, vines and shrubs. He has tried about all the schemes that farming affords ; but now claims to find Dakota a much happier locality. He served during the Rebellion in the 9th Heavy Artillery. His predecessor was his uncle, James Sheffield, who bought of the original patentee, Peter Aldrich. He, a son of Micajah, had married a daughter of Simeon Hendricks. His log house was of the most primitive character, destitute, I am told, of windows. He was a large, vigorous man, and noted in his day for his wood-chopping powers. He once had a fight with Roger Barnum, who lived further west, and in the bout he put out one of Barnum's eyes. Both were in liquor, a not infrequent condition for them, but later B. sued Aldrich for damage, and secured judgment to the extent of one hundred dollars. To pay this, he sold from the south part of his farm to Joseph Seelye, who in time sold to his son, George. So in neighborhood parlance the affair stands as "ten acres for an eye," that being just the amount of land parted with to pay the bill. He had several children, viz .: Maria, who married an Eastman from Sangerfield ; Prudence, Columbus Loveless of Butler ; Polly, Daniel Doty of Butler also. The sons, Walter and Micajah, went to Michigan, as did Peter and his wife. There was a daugh - ter, Barbara, whose name appears in an expression which the old man was heard to utter when his cattle got into his corn. "Hop, Walter ; jump, Cager; where the d-l's Barb ? " ( J. J. Seelye has returned from Dakota and lives in the Valley. George S. also came back, and after several years' struggle with disease, died in June, 1893, at the age of 32 years. He left a son, Joseph Leaton. )
Before we reach the next home, we must pause a moment at the site of a log house on the west side of the road. Here dwelt John Osborn, who came from Lincolnshire, England. He had seven sons, all born in Eng- land, and two daughters, Eliza and Mary A., born after coming to this country. Of these children, Sumuel lives on the first road north; Abner and Elijah live west of the Valley; Isaac was killed by lightning in the house where Samuel, Jr., lives. The father died in the same building.
Further along, but on the east side, was another log house, which John Osborn once owned. He took it from one Stoddard, who, leaving these parts, became a nurseryman in Rochester. After Mr. Osborn, came Daniel Crampton, who owned thirty-six acres, and who built the frame house, so long situated in the bend of the road. Before him, though, in the log house or shanty, lived at sundry times a Drury, whose wife was in some way related to Alverson Wade's first wife, and by the brothers Jason and Fred Wright,
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the latter a charcoal burner. I am told that a Mr. Hickok, grandfather of Felton and Eugene, once lived here; but the name most conspicuous among its occupants was that of L'Amoreaux. Certainly, French origin is evident here, and from the names in the Collins burial ground, there must have been quite a family representation in these parts, but no one of the name now lives in town. Peter L. and his wife, Elizabeth, are buried in the cemetery ; but Joel, their son, is the one with whom we are chiefly concerned. He had married a widow Baldwin, and had but one son, Sullivan, who, during the War, served in the 9th Heavy Artillery. He enlisted in Company F, from Cayuga county, and came home a brevet lieu- tenant-colonel. After leaving Rose, Mr. and Mrs. L. lived in Throopsville, Cayuga Co., and there died. Some of Mr. L.'s eccentricities will long be remembered. For instance, calling at a house where the people were accustomed to ask the divine blessing upon the food before eating, and, the man of the house being away, the good lady very innocently asked Mr. L'Amoreaux to perform that duty. The farmer twisted uneasily for a moment and then groaned forth, "Lady, I never did such a thing in my life." I don't know whether the lady asked the blessing herself or whether the food was eaten unblessed. As a story teller, he never had a parallel in Rose. Here is a specimen : "I was mowing one day in that meadow down yonder, when, happening to look up, I saw a big buck deer just a little way from me, and to all appearances about as much surprised at seeing me as I was at beholding him. Well, I wasn't going to lose that chance for venison, so I dropped my scythe and started for him. I never had such a race in my life. I nearly ran my legs off ; but he finally got stuck in a snow bank. Without stopping a moment, I grabbed him by his horns and then we had it. All I could do was to hang on, while he plunged and pushed and pawed till he had ripped every rag of clothing off my body. There wasn't a stitch left. What to do I didn't know. If I let go, he might kill me, and I, instead of he, would be fresh meat. Luckily, just then I happened to think of a long knife that I had in my pocket. Draw- ing this out, I cut his throat just as slick as a mink." Any inconsistency in this yarn seemed never to occur to the narrator. I have wondered whether, as a good Baptist brother in Throopsville, his stories were as interesting as they were when the teller was unregenerate. After the L'Amoreauxs, the place was merged with the farm opposite, and the house, like many others, saw all the degrees of decadence incident to tenant houses, and now nothing remains to mark its location. To show how names change in their daily use, it is interesting to know that the family and neighbors forty years since pronounced the foregoing name "Lum- meree."
At the risk of making a bull, I must state that the next place is back of us and on the west side. Here early in the century, came Alverson Wade
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from the east. His first wife was Naomi Munger. His second wife, who- survived him, was a widow DeGolyer from Clyde. As Mr. Wade and his- first wife were buried in the Stewart's corners burial ground, and as all trace of any memorial long since disappeared, it is impossible from any data at hand to tell just when they died, though it is probable that Mr. W. died about 1828. Alverson Wade was a brother of Esquire John Wade, who lived further west, and of Mrs. Deacon Shepard, of the No. 7 district. It is said that he was born in Penobscot, Me., 1759, and that living near Boston later, he drove an ox team with supplies to the scene of the battle at Bunker Hill, where his father, Dr. John Wade, was a surgeon. Later still, he resided in Springfield, Mass., where his children were born, viz .: Joseph, 1784 ; Uriah, Naomi, Lovina, Lucy and Mary. All of these went west. Naomi became Mrs. Jeremiah Chapin ; Lovina, 1st, Mrs. Marcus Page ; 2d, Mrs. Elihu Drury ; Lucy, Mrs. Zenas Fairbanks ; Mary, Mrs. Foster Collins. All reared large families.
I have understood that Peter L' Amoreaux, father of Joel L., succeeded the Wades upon this farm. Concerning him and his wife, I have no data, save the facts of their deaths as recorded in the Collins burial ground. John Lee, a brother of Lyman and Joel, came next on this farm. He was a native of Townsend, Vermont, where he was born, March 7th, 1803. His wife, Philura Wells, was born in Athens, Vermont, March 5th, 1802. Marrying in 1825, April 3d, they migrated in November of the following year to our town and settled on this farm. They here resided and reared their children till 1850, when they removed to Morgan, Ashtabula Co., Ohio. There Mrs. Lee died, April 27th, 1855. In January, 1867, Mr. Lee removed to Painesville, the same state, and died March 26th, 1881. There were three sons-Oscar W., who married Laura Lovejoy, of Rose, and now resides in Painesville, Ohio; Newton, who wedded Elsie Chaddock, a sister of Alonzo and Winfield C., and lives in Cleveland, Ohio ; Nelson O., the youngest, who married in Ohio, and now dwells in Painesville, that state. His business is that of wholesale druggist and grocer. We next find here Philetus Chamberlain, who, a native of Monroe county, has already been mentioned in the town district. His wife was Julia Barnes, from the Briggs neighborhood. Of his children, Mary is the wife of George Graves and lives in Wolcott ; Louisa went to Jackson, Mich., and married a Dr. Fields ; Philena, married, lives near her father in Mendon, Monroe Co. His only son, a boy when he moved away, is a prominent lawyer in Rochester. Mr. C. is remembered as a good farmer. After him came Milton Town, son of Silas and Polly. He repaired and very much improved the house. The property is still in the possession of his widow and son. (Recently Mr. Town has moved the barns to the east side of the road, much improving the same. )
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Standing well back from the road, with capacious barns just east of it, is -a comfortable looking house, now owned by Clayton J. Allen. We first find the place in the hands of Joseph Wade, son of Alverson, already referred to. Mr. Wade married Rhoda Rundell in Oneida Co. They had six chil- dren, of whom Louisa married James Davenport ; Willis S., married Almira Bannister ; Lucy, died in infancy ; Marcus P., married, 1st, Nerrissa Cran- ston ; 2d, Abigail C. Giles ; Uriah, married Lucy P. Giles ; Joseph C., mar- ried Mary E. Wilson. The family went to Michigan in 1834. All have held places of trust in their respective communities. Following him came Jacob Miller, whom early settlers will remember as a man of stalwart frame, a native of Pennsylvania. His first wife was a May ; his second, Amy Dix, born in Ovid, a relative of the John A. Dix family. His family was very large; Sarah, by her first marriage, became Mrs. Chester Lee ; Mary married Nathan W. Thomas ; Eliza, Samuel Otto ; Caroline, Richard Squires, Seville, O .; Harriet, three times married, 1st, -- Whitesides in Ohio ; Emily, -- Elder, Seville; Melinda, James Quail ; 2d, --- Case, died in Iowa; Louisa married and died in Ohio ; Daniel ; George C. married, 1st, a daughter of George Stewart in Butler; 2d, a Closs, cousin of the Rose Closses ; Rush died young; Jacob B. is in Kansas; Edmund in Seville, O. The Millers, who were staunch Methodists, went to Ohio, and to them succeeded the family of Solomon Allen. The latter was from Tin- mouth, Vermont. He always claimed to be related to the family of the famous Ethan Allen; but just how near the relationship was I cannot determine. Mr. Allen was twice married-first to Ziphe Horton, and second to Susan Westcott. By his first marriage, he had Aldula, who mar- ried Zadoc Taylor and lives near Carrier's corners ; Nathan died in 1842, aged nineteen years ; and Noah, who married Elizabeth Playford, of Huron, and moved to Wisconsin. By his second wife, he had Nathaniel, who married Anna Bull, of Huron, and now resides in Cleveland, Ohio, as clerk of the courts; Lampson, who married Augusta Wilson, of Rose ; Charles married Amanda Stark, of Wolcott, and as a merchant now lives in that village; Harriet became the wife of Dorr Center, of the same school district, and went to Illinois; and, lastly, Clayton, who married Mary, daughter of Washington Ellinwood. He holds the old farm, and long may it continue in the Allen name. The fact that his only child, Rus- sell, is a boy, insures the succession, unless the fates intervene, for the next generation. Solomon Allen came to Rose in 1833, and purchased the farm now owned by Hudson Wood. When General Adams wished to cut .or dig the Sodus canal, he bought Mr. Allen's place, and the latter came to this farm, where he died, in 1870, at the age of seventy-nine. His wife, very aged, still survives. (Died Jan. 26th, 1888, aged 84 years.) Mr. Allen was a man very much respected by all having him in acquaintance, and in 1852 served his fellow townsmen as supervisor. The Allen house,
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as we now see it, was constructed by him, or its red predecessor was made over and added to until the present result was attained.
Further west, on the south side of the road, is the substantial home of Joel Lee. Here, in the log house days, came "Squire" John Wade, a Connecticut gentleman of the most approved stock. He was, in addition to his farming, a shoemaker, perhaps one of the first in the locality. He certainly displayed taste in the location of his house, near the Rose and Wolcott road ; but they had to bring their water from the spring, under the hill to the southwest. Mr. Wade's wife was Eunice Olmstead, whose relatives we have heretofore noted as living south of Wolcott. Like many of the early settlers, he had numerous children. Perhaps I shall not name- them all, but there were: William, who, having married Angeline Lyon, went to Cattaraugus county; Jesse, who married Permelia, sister of Dr. Van Ostrand, of the Valley, and went west also ; Willis G. married Juliette Closs, a sister of Harvey and "Ham" Closs, and, after securing quite a property as a pension agent, died childless, in 1854, aged thirty-three; John, who, from accident and medicine, was a hopeless cripple, and passed the latter part of his life with his cousin, Dudley; Eliza, who married George Fairbanks and went west, and Eunice, who became the wife of Josiah Upson, a member of one of the oldest families in Huron. As his wife she became the mother of Mrs. Sarah Andrus, Carroll H., Homer J., William and Frank Upson. Dudley Wade, a nephew, and already men- tioned, passed his boyhood in the family of John Wade. After selling this farm, "Squire " Wade lived for a while on the Deacon Lyon place, south of the Valley, but finally both he and his wife made their homes with Dudley Wade, and in his house died, Mr. Wade, Dec. 24, 1840, aged sixty-five ; Mrs. Wade, Jan. 22, 1847, aged sixty-eight. They are buried in the Dis- trict No. 7 burial ground.
Lyman Lee followed on the Wade farm, and here passed many years of a long and valuable life. To him we owe the fine house, with its com- manding outlook ; but his son, Joel, arranged the farm buildings as they now are, the barns originally being on the north side of the road. Lyman Lee was a Vermonter, coming to Rose from Brooklyn in that state. There- were four brothers - Alfred, John, Joel N. and Lyman Lee - all at one time in this town. They were at first nearer the Valley on the west. Alfred, who came first, at one time owned the Elijah Osborn place. He built a saw-mill on the stream which marked the course of Adams' ditch. He sold out and went to Ohio. The other three brothers were interested in a brick-yard, just west of the Valley and near the canal. John Lee we have already mentioned. Joel N. lived north of the Valley, and was the father of Mrs. Chas. S. Wright. All these brothers were exemplary men, and were among the first and most prominent members of the Methodist Church. Lyman was twice married. His first wife, Mary Champion, died
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in Vermont. She was the mother of Serotia, who died unmarried, and is buried in the Ellinwood burial ground ; also of Chester, who once lived on the Wickwire farm. By his second wife, Betsey Barnes, Lyman Lee had Mary, who married Washington Ellinwood, and died years ago; Joel and Clarinda, who has been named as the wife of Milton Town. Both Lyman Lee and his wife died in 1873, and at nearly the same age ; he having been born in 1785, she, in 1786. They are buried in the -Ellinwood inclosure. From this epitaph, "Mary, wife of Joel Lee, died February 28th, 1855, aged ninety-three years, eight months," upon a stone near at hand, I con- clude that Mr. Lee's mother accompanied him on his migration, and that Joel must have been a family name; we thus seeing three generations of the prænomen. In our account of the Town district, we mentioned Mary, daughter of Silas and Polly Town, as the wife of Joel Lee, who was born before his parents left Vermont, coming to Rose when an infant. They lived for many years in the stone house, a quarter of a mile further west, and here their children - Alice and Clifford - were born. The former, a beautiful girl, died in 1876; Clifford, in 1881. He had married Eva Dodds only a few months before his death. In this part of the town, there is no more thoroughly equipped farm than Mr. Lee's, and the writer has a vivid recollection of the fertility of some of the fields, when he and Uriah Marsh, in ante-bellum days, assisted in garnering the crops. A creamery near the house sends out butter of the choicest kind. Just under the hill is a watering trough, where the traveler may quench both his own thirst and that of his horse, with the purest and coolest water from the spring in the field to the south. In former times, a road crossed from the east and west way, next south, running just east of the spring and along the edge of the hill, but when further settlements were made to the west this road was given up and the one west of Linus Osgood's was opened. It is worthy of note that near the spring, in the early part of the century, was a log house (such houses then sprung up much like mushrooms), in which lived the usual routine of wood choppers, the Bedouins of those days. Here, Samuel Osborn informs me, occurred the only death from cholera in the town. The occupant had been down to Galen, where his son died of the pestilence. Returning to his own hut, he speedily died of the same dread disease.
The last house on this road, belonging to the district, is the one now occupied by Henry Decker. The first resident whom I can find was Elder Smith, a Baptist preacher. After him came Valorous Ellinwood, the father of Valorous E., who married Elnora Seelye, and now lives south of the Valley. The Ellinwood family is one of the oldest in the town, but a full account of it must be reserved till we reach the district next west. Nehemiah Seelye followed, but him and his family we have discussed in our account of the No. 7 district. Very likely there have been other occupants, but the details I cannot give. Henry Decker we have met
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before in District No. 5, as the husband of Mary Deady. Mr. D. is a native of Dutchess county. Their sons were James and John. The latter kept for some years the hotel in North Rose and died in the fall of 1886. James is in business in Eustis, Nebraska.
From this point our boys and girls went eastward in search of knowledge, and the children who obtained their rudiments of learning, for many years, at Stewart's Corners, knew what it was to walk. To some of them it was a good two miles' walk every day. From the next house the children, like the starry empire, westward took their course and sought their education in the Valley.
We must now retrace our steps to the point near which our lately traversed road . began. Almost facing this road there was, until a few years ago, a blacksmith shop, whence rang, early and late, the merry sound of hammer and anvil. Here, in 1844, came Simeon J. Van Antwerp from Rensselaer county ; another Dutch settler. He bought an acre of land of James Stewart, put up his shop and house, and was accounted one of the very best smiths in Rose. Visions of that shop will ever be vivid in my fancy. Here the boys of the neighborhood rode their fathers' horses, and what might have been an hour of most restful ease became one of torture, through being compelled to switch flies while the blacksmith renewed the shoes for the hoofs. That old horse-tail switch, with its wooden handle, must ever hold a place in memory. In shape like a cat-o'-nine-tails, while it brought comfort to the steed, it was to the boy swinging it as heavy as a flail. Any falling off in zeal on his part, thereby causing the least restiveness on the part of the horse, brought down upon his head all sorts of objurgations from the irate mechanic. What a hard time for the boy! He wanted to hear all the gossip that the loungers were distributing ; he very much wished to see just how the smith's apprentice was making nails and shoes, and he may even have had a little pounding of his own to do at the vise or on the spare anvil ; but those cursed flies must be switched. With keen eye, he must detect every vagrant buzzer and thus prevent any movement adding to the workman's labor. If screen doors had been invented in those days, and blacksmiths could have been persuaded to use them, how much happiness might have been added to the life of that greatly abused individual, the boy! The old blacksmith shop, located at the four corners, has had its day. Modern machine-made shoes and nails have driven it out of existence, and where, as in Longfellow's blacksmith,
"You could hear him swing his heavy sledge
With measured beat and slow,"
now only cinders and slag remain to mark the site of patient, toilful industry. Mr. Van Antwerp died in 1863, aged sixty-seven. His wife had preceded him into the spirit land in 1857, at the age of fifty-seven.
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Both Mr. Van Antwerp and his wife, who was Elizabeth Veley, were born in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer Co. Whether the irritation incident to the spelling and pronouncing of the name of their native town had anything to do with their removal, I am unable to state, but to ordinary mortals the cause would seem sufficient. Their children, eight in all, were born in Rensselaer county. They were : Ann, who married Morgan Dunham, both of whom are dead ; Daniel, a blacksmith like his father, married Margaret Veley and lives in West Butler; Jane is the wife of Elijah Osborn, of the Valley ; Caroline became Mrs. Perry Barber, and resides in Delta, Delta Co., Colorado ; Lovina married Edwin Van Antwerp, from Troy, N. Y. ; John married Emeline Scott, of Butler, and both sleep the last sleep in the Hubbard burial ground of Butler, the flag over John's grave indicating that, in war times, he responded to the call of duty ; Eleanor Maria married Joseph H. Hemans, and lives in Neosha, Newton Co., Missouri ; Lewis H., the youngest son, died unmarried, at the age of twenty-eight. Following Simeon Van Antwerp, his son-in-law, Edwin, who married Lovina, held the place for a number of years. He had added to it considerably and had a very pleasant and fertile farm. He died in 1879, aged forty-three. His wife resides in the Valley. His children are : Dell, Evelyn, (Ray died early), John Henry and Edwin Elbert. The place is now owned by John Shear, who married Henrietta M., daughter of Stephen Collins. Their children are : Jessie, who married Thomas Gun- ning of Wilmington, Ill. ; Judson, married Della Veach, and is in Shaw- ville, Ill. ; Arthur, married Mary Joyce of Illinois and lives in Detroit ; Stephen and Thaddeus. (Mr. Shear, who came to this town from Seneca Co., died Nov. 5, 1891, aged sixty-eight years. Stephen, who served three years in the United States navy, is now in possession, having married Maggie Powers, of Butler. Thaddeus served two years in the regular army, and is now in Pasadena, California, and with him his mother will make her home.)
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