USA > New York > Tompkins County > Dryden > The centennial history of the town of Dryden. 1797-1897 > Part 19
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Among the features developed in later years, is the public dancing, none too well accommodated in a building originally built for an eat- ing hall, where the young men and maidens from all the country round meet and publicly dance to good music in a manner freed from many of the objectionable features which attend all-night public dances at poor country hotels.
At the last fair the exhibition included over four hundred head of stock ; the awarded premiums, which have always been paid in full, ex- ceeded two thousand dollars ; and the total receipts, as shown by the report of the treasurer, were more than four thousand six hundred dollars, the attendance probably exceeding ten thousand people, at least more than double the number of the whole population of the township.
SCENE AT DRYDEN FAIR.
190
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
As illustrating the popularity of the Dryden Fair in our neighbor- ing towns and villages, a traveling agent came into town on the train from Cortland in the afternoon of the last day of the last year's ex- hibition with a discomforted look on his countenance. When asked what the matter was, he said he had started out that morning in Cortland to sell some goods to the merchants. In the first store at which he called he was told that the proprietor was attending the fair at Dryden and would not return until evening. Having a similar ex- perience at the second and third stores he visited in the usual course of his business, he concluded it was a poor day in which to find Cortland merchants, and he started for the livery barn, intending to drive to some of the neighboring villages, such as Truxton, Solon, etc., which were included in his route; but when he reached the livery office he was informed that the proprietor had let every conveyance which he could rig up to go to the Dryden Fair and had gone himself to take the last load. Completely discouraged, he returned to his ho- tel inquiring when there was a train for Dryden, declaring that he too was going to the Dryden Fair where all of his customers had gone be- fore him.
The principal officers of the society from its organization to the present time are as follows :
PRESIDENTS.
Elias W. Cady,
-
1856
Lemi Grover,
- - 1872-3
Smith Robertson, -
1857
R. W. Barnum,
1874
John P. Hart, -
1858-9
O. W. Wheeler,
- 1875
Alviras Snyder,
-
1860
G. M. Lupton,
1876-82
Peter V. Snyder,
1861
Martin E. Tripp, -
1883
Charles Givens, -
- 1862-3
G. M. Lupton,
1884
Jacob Albright,
1864
G. M. Rockwell,
1885
Nathan Bouton,
- 1865-6
John H. Kennedy,
1886
C. Bartholomew,
1867
Theron Johnson, -
1887
Luther Griswold, -
1868
Benjamin Sheldon,
1888-9
Robert Purvis,
1869
Chester D. Burch,
- 1890-4
A. B. Lamont,
1870
Seward G. Lupton,
1895-8
Chas. Cady, -
1871
SECRETARIES.
Otis E. Wood,
1826-7 Alpheus F. Houpt,
1862-3
Alviras Snyder,
- 1858-9 Simeon Snyder, -
- 1864
Luther Griswold,
1860 W. S. Moffat, - 1865
M. Van Valkenburgh,
- 1861 Henry H. Houpt, - - 1866
191
THE ELLIS FAMILY.
C. D. Bouton, -
1867 W. E. Osmun,
- 1874-6
Alviras Snyder,
- 1868-9 Wm. H. Goodwin, 1877-82
John H. Kennedy,
1870 Geo. E. Monroe, - - 1883-4
Geo. E. Monroe, -
- 1871-2 A. M. Clark, - 1885
Alviras Snyder,
1873 Jesse B. Wilson, -
1886-98
TREASURERS.
D. P. Goodhue,
1856-7
Isaac P. Ferguson, - 1873-6
Thomas J. McElheny,
1858-60
Wm. I. Baucus, -
1877-82
Eli A. Spear, -
1861-3
J. B. Fulkerson, - 1883-4
D. P. Goodhue,
1864 David E. Bower, -
- 1885-7
Eli A. Spear, -
1865-71
De Witt T. Wheeler, - 1888-98
Walker Marsh, -
1872
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE ELLIS FAMILY IN DRYDEN.
From the prominence of the Ellis pioneers in the early history of Dryden, and the fact that many of the present inhabitants trace their ancestry back to that family, a special chapter is here devoted to its early history.
From an old family record we find that Gideon Ellis and Elizabeth (Manchester,) his third wife, lived, before and during the War of the Revolution, at West Greenwich, Rhode Island, where they became the parents of seven children, of whom three were destined afterwards to become the ancestors of many Dryden people. One of these was Oliver, born July 2, 1769; another, John, born May 22, 1771; and the youngest, Peleg, born May 9, 1775. An older half-brother, Gideon, Jr., was a pioneer of Cayuga county, and some of his descendants are now living at Aurora and Ithaca. The three brothers mentioned emi- grated to Fairfield, Herkimer county, N. Y., before the year 1800, where Oliver met an accidental death, never having come to Dryden, but his widow, Hannah (Reynolds,) afterwards settled with some of her children near Malloryville in Dryden, and two of her daughters became successively the wives of Andrew K. Fortner, the son of an early pioneer of Dryden, and another, Susan, the wife of Charles Grinnell, both soldiers and afterwards pensioners of the War of 1812; and another, Lovina, was the old lady, Mrs. Grant, who recently died in Dryden village. There are many descendants of Oliver now living in other places and some descendants of the children named still reside in Dryden.
192
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
John Ellis before leaving Rhode Island had married Rhoda Rath- burn. There had recently died at Royal Grant, Herkimer county, Dr. Samuel Cook, a Revolutionary surgeon of the 5th N. Y. Regiment, to whom had been assigned four lots of the Military Tract, a surgeon's bounty. In March, 1768, John purchased of the Cook estate Lot 23 of Virgil, upon which he settled in the same year. After remaining there about three years he sold that lot to Moses and Isaac Olmstead and came to Dryden, first settling near Malloryville in 1801, whence he removed to Ellis Hollow a few years later. His first wife having died, he after- wards married the widow of Jacob Hiles, the ances- tor of the Hiles family in Dryden, and took up his residence on the farm now owned by Wesley Hiles, where he died in 1844. His prominence in the po- litical history of the town jis unrivalled, he having held the position of school superintendent, commis- sioner of highways, and other offices, in addition to having been supervisor twenty-seven years, four- teen of which were con- secutive, member of as- sembly twice, and judge MAJOR PELEG ELLIS. From an old picture in the possession of the family. of the Court of Common Pleas of both Cayuga and Tompkins counties. In our times a politician who holds the office of supervisor of his town for a few years subjects himself to sufficient criticism and envy to blast his future political ambition, if he has any ; but it was not so with Judge Ellis, whose record as an office-holder of the town of Dryden will doubtless always remain unequalled. He was a large land-owner and acted as the agent of a few non-resident hold- ers of Dryden real estate, notably the Mckay and Howland estates. At one time he was connected in land speculations with Daniel J. Shaw, who was then a Dryden village merchant.
193
THE ELLIS FAMILY.
Of his children, Charlotte married Charles Hart; Betsey, James Mc- Elheny ; Amelia, Mahar Wigton ; Nancy, John Southworth ; and Ly- dia, her cousin, Warren D. Ellis, of Varna. His sons were James, Ira, Willett, John, and Peleg second. To those who are familiar with the present inhabitants of Dryden these names will suggest many of the descendants of Judge Ellis, "King of Dryden."
Peleg Ellis, the pioneer of Ellis Hollow, as we have seen, exchanged his real estate in Herkimer county with the same Cook estate for Lot 84 of Dryden, to which he came, as has already been described in a former chapter, in 1799. Here, on the headwaters of Cascadilla Creek, he built his log house, to which the next year, on July 12, 1800, he brought his wife, Ruth ( Dawley,) and two daughters, Mary, aged about four, who afterwards married Silas Hutchinson and died about five years ago aged 96 years, and a second daughter about two years of age, who died in childhood. Ten children were born to them at the Ellis Hollow home, viz : Delilah, born Jan. 30, 1801, who married David Mulks, of Slaterville; Olive, who married James Mulks, of Ithaca ; Lydia, who married Benjamin Ames; Mahala, who married Peter Worden, of Dryden; Warren D .; Ruth, who married John H. Kimball, of Berkshire; Huldah, who married her cousin, John C. Ellis, of Rhode Island ; Sally, who married Marenus Ellis, late of Freeville ; John J. Ellis, and Ann H., the widow of John M. Smith, late of Ellis Hollow. Of these, four daughters are still living, viz : Ruth, Huldah, Sally, and Ann H.
Peleg died May 9, 1859, aged 84 years upon that day. His wife survived him until 1870, when she died in her ninety-third year.
Major Ellis was not, like his brother John, a politician, but in early life turned his attention to military affairs. When the War of 1812 broke out, being captain of the early state militia in Dryden, he vol- unteered with his whole company, instead of waiting as others did to be drafted ; and instead of refusing to cross the Niagara River when the battle of Queenston was about to be fought, as did so many of the New York militia at that time, he followed across the frontier under the leadership of Winfield Scott, with his whole company, under Col. Bloom, of Lansing, and at the conclusion of the battle, together with about forty of the Dryden men, was among the prisoners of war; but they were immediately paroled and sent home. Like some oth- ers, Major Ellis acquired in his army experience the habit of the intemperate use of intoxicating drink and in after years when he in- dulged too freely his martial spirit manifested itself and he would go through the manual of arms, in imagination commanding his company
13
194
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
as of yore, with all the preciseness and dignity of actual military service. As his years grew upon him, however, he came to realize that his intemperate habits, first acquired in the army, were a detri- ment to him, and with a resolution stronger than many men of our times can muster, he suddenly broke himself of the growing habit, and his last few years were characterized by his strict sobriety and a religious life.
John and Peleg Ellis were men deservedly popular and influential with their associates, both being selected as leaders of their fellow citizens, one in political and the other in military affairs. Both per- formed their duties faithfully and well, and both were so constituted as to become ornaments of the generation in which they lived and worthy of the honor and gratitude of their posterity and of the subse- quent generations of the township which they served as leaders in their respective capacities.
For a portrait of Judge Ellis see frontispiece of this volume.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE SNYDER FAMILY IN DRYDEN.
We here treat of that branch of the Snyder family which descended from the pioneers Peter and Christopher Snyder, now constituting a multitude, and who have cherished and preserved their family history since leaving their old home at Oxford, N. J. The details of their pioneer journey and early settlement in Dryden are so carefully and minutely given, affording some new facts regarding pioneer life and manners, that we are pleased to insert in full the annals of the family as prepared and revised under their family organization, which has an annual meeting in our town called the "Snyder Picnic. " Another branch of the family, descending from the pioneer Jacob Snyder, who came to Dryden from near the same locality and at about the same time, probably more or less nearly related to a common origin, set- tled near and gave its name to "Snyder Hill, " and is treated of briefly among the pioneer families of the South-west Section.
The following is the history of the Snyder family of the town of Dryden which was read by Alviras Snyder at the first annual picnic of that family, Friday, September 18, 1874, and lately revised by him :
In the latter part of the winter of 1746-7, a colony of about one hun- dred Germans emigrated from near Tinnen and near the Ems River, n the extreme western part of Germany, and near the Holland line,
195
THE SNYDER FAMILY.
and settled in the northwestern part of New Jersey. Among this number was Cristoffer Schneider (meaning a tailor) and his wife, Ka- trina, who settled in what was then Sussex but now Warren county, near Oxford and Oxford Furnace on what was known as Scotch Moun- tain. It is about five miles from the village of Belvidere, in a south- westerly direction, and two to three miles from the Delaware River. Trenton was their nearest market, being about sixty-five miles distant, and Greenwich, since changed to Montana, was their postoffice.
There were born to them five sons and one daughter. The sons' names were Christopher, George, Peter, William, and Henry, and their only daughter was Anna, who married John Shults. The youngest son, Henry, remained on the old homestead, and the son William and the daughter settled near by. The son George settled in Genoa, Cay- uga county, N. Y. The four older sons were in that part of the Con- tinental Army of the Revolutionary War which was stationed in New Jersey. The musket that Peter carried in the service and brought home with him was very short, having a flint lock, and was sold after his death, at his vendue, to some person residing in the eastern part of the town of Dryden.
Peter Snyder was born in Oxford township December 26, 1752, and died July 23, 1832. He was both a wagon-maker and a blacksmith by trade and at the marriage of each of his children presented them with a wagon, chains, and other utensils necessary for farming. He kept the teams shod until he became infirm. His shop was located just north of the four corners near Bradford Snyder's, and where the creek now runs. In 1776 he married Mary Shaver, also a German, who was born in the township of Oxford, June 25th, 1753, and died October 20, 1839.
There were born to them eleven children, viz: Elizabeth [(Nail), born October 25, 1777, and died September 22, 1802; George, born May 11, 1779, died May 9, 1843 ; Henry, born May 2, 1781, died Au- gust 29, 1870 ; Catharine (Grover), born June 28, 1783, died January 18, 1860 ; Peter, born April 15, 1782, died June 25, 1875; William, born April 9, 1787, died December 4, 1878; John, born February 12, 1789, died February 26, 1861; Anna (Whipple), born February 1, 1791, died February 26, 1811; Abraham, born November 23, 1792, died October 4, 1857 ; Mary (McCutcheon), born July 17, 1796, died March 7, 1865, and Jeremiah, born October 25, 1799, died May 7th, 1857.
Early in April, 1801, Peter Snyder and his brother Christopher came to the township of Dryden, then Cayuga county, and selected
196
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
Lot No. 43, which they intended to purchase. They thoughtlessly and incautiously revealed their choice to one William Goodwin, who im- mediately proceeded to Albany and purchased the lot, consisting of six hundred and forty acres, from the state. Shortly thereafter the two brothers, on arriving at Albany, learned of the purchase by Goodwin, but they subsequently bought the entire six hundred and forty acres of him for three dollars per acre. Immediately on their return to New Jersey the two brothers and Henry, son of Peter, and George Dart, son-in-law of Christopher, came to Dryden and chopped the trees from six acres of land on their newly acquired farm on the west side of what is now Bradford and Delilah Snyder's farm, and on the northwest bank of Fall Creek, after which they returned home. In August following the two brothers and George Snyder and George Dart returned, logged and burned over the six acres that had been chopped the previous spring. They purchased wheat of one John Ozmun, in the town of Lansing, for three shillings per bushel, sowed their fallow and returned home.
On the first day of June, 1802, Peter Snyder and his entire family, together with his son-in-law, Henry Nail, and wife and child, consisting of sixteen persons, together with all their worldly goods packed in three lumber wagons covered with white canvas, started for their future home in the Far West. One of these wagons was drawn by two span of horses, one by two yoke of oxen, and the other by a span of horses. The three sons, William, John, and Abraham, barefooted, drove eight cows the entire distance through the woods.
They were accompanied by Christopher Snyder and family, Jacob Crutts, son-in-law of Christopher, and family, and George Dart and family. There were in all thirty-two persons, ten teams, and six wagons. They crossed the Delaware river at Belvidere, came through what was known as the Beech Woods in Pennsylvania to Great Bend, and thence to Owego. From Owego there was a track cut through the woods as far as Pewtown, one mile east of Ithaca, along which they came. They were obliged to cut their own road from Pewtown to Judd's Falls, whence they came up the Bridle Road and arrived at the inn of George Robertson on the evening of the eighteenth day of June, having been eighteen days on their journey and having traveled a dis- tance of one hundred and sixty-five miles. Their slow progress, only nine miles a day, is accounted for in part by the bad condition of the roads, but mostly by the fact that the horses and cattle had to be fed in the morning before starting, which was done by browsing; that is, by cutting down basswood, maple, and beech trees, and letting the an-
197
THE SNYDER FAMILY.
imals eat the tender leaves and small twigs or branches, and the same was repeated at night, but in time so that all the animals could be prop- erly tethered after their supper, otherwise they would wander astray.
Before starting they cooked a large quantity of provision for the journey and made tea night and morning in a kettle which they car- ried for that purpose, either building a fire where they encamped or getting permission to "boil the tea kettle" over the old fashioned fireplace. Their principal subsistence was mush and milk and samp and milk and journey-cake, now johnny-cake, and these constituted their main subsistence until after the harvest of their wheat. At night they slept in inns when it was convenient, the remainder of the time in their covered wagons. They obtained fire by striking a flint stone with a piece of steel made for that purpose and so held that a spark therefrom would come in contact with a piece of punk wood, which was easily ignited. On arriving at Charley Hill, the upper half of the east hill at Varna was found to be impassible, so that they were compelled to cut a new road around and to the south further than where it now is, and then back again.
On arriving here, the two brothers threw up a chip, "Wet or dry." By chance Peter won the choice and chose the western half, each re- taining a half interest in the wheat that was on this half. The wheat was harvested, not with a binder, but was cut with sickles adminis- tered by eight sturdy hands, and threshed, not with a Groton thresher and cleaner, but with flails, upon the ground, which had been smoothed off for that purpose. It was cleaned in true Egyptian style, by pour- ing it from an eminence, while the wind was blowing, and the wheat was thus separated from the chaff. This wheat was carried to Lud- lowville on horseback, where it was ground.
The next day after their arrival, June 19th, all the working force commenced work on Peter Snyder's log house, which was located opposite the present residence of B. Snyder. It was 20 x 24 feet, and was completed in a few days, with green hewn basswood floors, and the roof was covered with basswood bark. They had just moved into this house when the children came down with the measles, which they had contracted at the Water tavern in Pennsylvania. Gerchen Nail, the only child of Henry and Elizabeth Nail, died on July 2nd from this disease, which was the first death in the town, and she was followed on Sept. 22nd by her mother from consumption, which was the first adult death in the town. Peter Snyder chiseled these names and deaths on a brown quarry stone which still stands at their graves in the Robertson cemetery. Up to the time of the completion of this
198
HISTORY OF DRYDEN.
house, the families staid at George Robertson's, which was about a mile distant, and the men while at work found their way back and forth through the woods by means of marked trees.
Immediately on the completion of this first house, one was built by Christopher, where Catharine Rhodes now lives.
After having been here about two weeks, the horses, allowed to run at large, took " French leave" one night and started for their former home. They took a straight course for Owego, instead of the circui- tous one they had taken when they came, but were recognized by the settlers and were subsequently recovered at Owego.
These houses were further improved in the summer by building a stone fireplace about seven feet high, the upper portion of the chimney being composed of sticks and clay. The crevices between the logs were filled with clay, an opening about two feet square was left in the west end for a window and a split and hewn basswood floor was com- pleted for the chamber, which was reached by a ladder, and the roof was covered with shaved shingles. Up to the time the chimney was completed the cooking was done out of doors by means of a pole placed upon crotched sticks, from which the cooking utensils were sus- pended, and this department was now transferred to the fireplace. It. was now done by means of a green pole placed across the chimney some six feet high, called a "lug pole," from which trammels and tram- mel-hooks were suspended so that the cooking utensils could be raised or lowered at pleasure. At this time it was not an uncommon occur- rence for this pole to get on fire and break, and down would come the dinner. It was then a common expression to say of a person of a weak mind, or rather below mediocrity, that he had been "hit on the head by the lug pole." The doors were hung on wooden hinges, rudely constructed, with a wooden latch, and a "latch string" extending through a small hole in the door above the latch and running to the outside. The fireplace was afterwards improved by means of iron cranes and still later by andirons.
There being no friction matches at this time, the settlers were often compelled "to borrow fire " of one of the neighbors in the morning, when their own had gone out.
After the families became settled, George Snyder returned to New Jersey, where he remained with his family until February, 1805.
Peter Snyder subsequently purchased all of Lot No. 42 of a Mr. Constable for $2.75 per acre, but shortly thereafter sold one hundred and twenty acres of this to a Mr. Skillinger, so that he was enabled to give each of his sons one hundred and six acres of land and each of his
199
THE MCGRAW FAMILY.
daughters fifty-three acres in one contiguous body. Thus it is seen that our ancestors followed, to a certain extent, the old English rule of giving the sons more than the daughters. He afterwards purchased fifty-eight acres of land on Lot No. 90, Ulysses, now Ithaca, which came into possession of his daughter Anna (Whipple.)
The descendants of Peter Snyder, commencing at the time of their marriage in 1776, and including all who intermarried therein, were, on Sept. 15th, 1874, 668 ; deaths in that time, 128; males in the family, 325 ; deaths therefrom, 66; females, 343 ; deaths, 62 ; then living, 540; males, 259; females, 281. As far as a census at the present time could be taken there have been in the family 1068 persons ; males, 517 ; deaths, 138; females, 551; deaths, 143 ; now living, 887.
This family instituted an annual picnic in 1874 and the family has had an annual reunion every year since.
Christopher Snyder died the next year after his settlement in Dry- den, in 1803, leaving eight children, viz : Katrina (Crutts,) William, Mary ( Brown,) - ( Dart,) Christopher, Sarah (Sovocool,) David, and Margaret ( Rhodes.) The Rhodes and Crutts families of Dryden are descended from this branch.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE MCGRAW FAMILY IN DRYDEN.
Some time about the year 1827, two sturdy lads, tall and well pro- portioned but clad in homespun clothing and barefooted, came to " Dryden Corners " from the South Hill neighborhood, driving an ox team and bringing to market a wagon load of pine shingles which they had shaved by hand. They drove up to the store kept by Phillips & Brown near the spot where the M. E. church now stands, and, after ex- changing their cargo of shingles for such store goods as they needed and could afford to buy, returned to their home in the Irish Settle- ment. These young men were Joseph, Jr., and John McGraw, who afterwards became men of prominence and influence in the business and social affairs of their native town of Dryden, afterwards becoming residents of Ithaca, where both resided when they died.
Their father, Joseph McGraw, Sr., had emigrated in the year 1806 from Armagh, in the north of Ireland, a locality inhabited by a race of Scotch people who came there from Scotland at or before the time of Cromwell. The maiden name of their mother was Nelson, and the McGraws, Nelsons, and Teers brothers, as well as Hugh Thompson
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