USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Ellicott > The early history of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, N.Y. > Part 13
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Belvin B. Mason, father of Levant L. Mason, comes next on our list of garment makers. Where he first commenced business we do not clearly. recollect. He at one time lived in a house on the southwest cor- ner of Pine and Fourth streets, known as the Pearl Johnson house. We distinctly remember that he re- sided here when Levant left home to learn the jeweler's trade in Rochester. He may have had a shop in the long building then extending west from the house to the alley. Afterwards he had a shop in the second story of the brick block burned a few years ago, and owned by William Hall and others, situated on the north side of Third street, between Main street and Potter's alley. After Mason came Henry Herrick, who advertised to cut pants for 13 cents, coats at 25 cents and overcoats at 30 cents, and to make up the gar- ments in the best style possible, at the same propor- tionate rates. There were several others who might be mentioned, but the above are the principal ones,
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and as we have followed the business down to a period when just and honest profits apparently had to give way to ruinous competition, and, judging from the ad- vertisements in the newspapers of to-day, the ruinous competition still continues, we will give the tailors a rest.
SHOEMAKERS AND COBBLERS.
In the settlement of a wilderness country where at least one-half were cobblers, and made, after a fash- ion, their own foot gear, it is quite impossible, after sixty years and more have passed away, to state who was the first builder of boots and shoes, without some special circumstance transpired to fix it in the mind. We well remember that the early tanners had a room for shoe making, and employed one or more men to make boots and shoes. Abram Frank, the Busti tan- ner, was the great boot maker of the country at an early day and employed several workmen. That Barrett & Barker employed at least two we can give positive testimony. Barrett and Barker's shoemakers had bought two bushels of chestnuts from an Indian, and had spread them out on a side of sole leather on some loose boards above their work room to dry. Ira Rus- sell and Niles Budlong, two boys twelve or fourteen years of age, found the chestnuts and, believing they were for any one to eat who desired, filled their pock- ets and went away. They stated to their fathers that they carried away their pockets full two or three times -which probably was the truth, for several young men also found the chestnuts, and testified that they thought they carried away as many as two or three bushels. The shoemakers finally missed their chest- nuts and learning that Ira and Niles had taken some of them, coaxed them into the shop and administered
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" strap oil " in dangerous doses. The boys were laid up a week or more because of the fearful flogging they had received. The affair caused considerable excite- ment and Budlong was about arresting the men when Niles requested him not to do so. "Gust" and "Dasc" Allen, Mart Forbes and Uncle Ben (Benjamin Run- yan) had a confidential talk with Niles, and Budlong suspecting the boys were going to settle it in their own way let the matter drop. A few days afterwards early in the evening Runyan was seen sitting with the shoe- makers on the edge of the platform which ran along the south side of Tiffany's store. A signal was given and almost instantly all the boys in town were in the street with Carpenter at the head. Two stout crates which were kept back of Tiffany's store and used to crate drunken men through the streets, and to the bridge, where they were hung off the side until morn- ing, when the occupants were found quite sober and ready to go home to breakfast, were quickly on hand. They were placed by the side of the platform and as quickly there was a shoemaker in each and tied fast to it by strong ropes, and the crates started down Main street for the bridge, the shoemakers swearing fear- fully. In case of a drunken man, undergoing the crate, it was a rule that if he used any profane lan- guage, any boy having an "elder squirt" (and on these occasions every boy had one) might squirt pure cold water from Tiffany's spring into his face until the pro- fanity ceased. The elder squirts were immediately brought into requisition. The shoemakers begged; promised to swear no more, and the irrigation ceased. They were soon hanging over the side of the bridge. Some friends soon released them; they started imme-
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diately for Warren-went down the river on a raft- and never returned.
The practice of crating drunken men in James- town began about the year 1822 and was continued for several years. With whom it originated we can- not say, although a shrewd guess might be given- surely not with the boys, although they were the exe- cutioners. We do not wish to implicate Silas Tiffany or any other prominent citizen of the olden time, in originating the "crate law," therefore will pass it over. The squirting of water into the face soon sobered the victim of the crate law. A drunken man was not tied fast to the crate; the hinged cover was closed and the crate made fast midway between the floor of the bridge and the swift water below. Frequently sawyers in the mill, who, as would be said now, were in "cahoot" with the boys, or other friends would draw up the crates and release the occupants, but it was seldom that a person onee in got out until perfectly sober. With few exceptions it was seldom that a man was found in condition to undergo the crate after the second time, for the most part once sufficed. The method was cheap and effectual. If help was necessary Car- penter was generally at hand to aid the boys. We shall always remember his once presenting himself to undergo the punishment himself. He repaired to Tif- fany's corner and gave the usual signal, and the boys were soon there. He said he was "half seas over," "three sheets in the wind," "water-logged," inelined to "go with the wind," " too lubberly sea sick to trim ship" and would soon be on his "beam end" if the boys did not give him a lift; wanted to be put into the crate, have water squirted over his heated " figger- head," and put over the side of the bridge to dry.
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He was partially accommodated; we put him in the crate and wet him down with water from Tiffany's spring ;- the crate was then placed on two handsleds and Guinea was escorted home by all the boys in town. On reaching his domicile he was perfectly sober, and before entering the house made a speech to the boys (he was a fluent speaker) which was greeted with cheers and the boys went home.
About 1825 Deacon James Carey and Deacon Loring Shearman opened a shop in what had been Titus Kellogg's residence on the north side of Second street between Pine and Spring streets where is now a long brick building, which as strange as it may ap- pear, was erected by Kellogg, and intended for five fancy dry good stores of the village of Jamestown. Six steps in front led to the store rooms. They were never occupied for that purpose. Soon afterwards Wm. M. Eddy and Joseph Merrills opened a shop in the second story of Higley & Kellogg's store, before mentioned. Long before this time Hiram W. Curtis was making shoes in the building erected by James Dinnin for a tailor's shop, previously mentioned. In 1827 R. W. Arnold, Lewis Hazzard and Joseph Mer- rills built a small shop calculated to accommodate four workmen, just cast of where Gron's livery stable now stands on Second street. In the year 1831 Ezra Wood came to town, entered into partnership with H. W. Curtis, and put a stock of Boston made boots and shoes into a building on the southwest corner of Third street and Mechanic's alley. This was the first regular boot and shoe store established in Jamestown. This build- ing became quite prominent in the business affairs of the village and will be spoken of more fully hereafter. In early days we had a sufficient supply of small
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shoe shops to supply the local demand. Now we have immense five-storied factories, employing hundreds of shoemakers and sending their products far and near through the United States. Then we went direct to the shoemaker for our shoes, now the only shoes he could sell us, possibly, are the ones on his feet. Then the shoemaker made shoes; now it takes a dozen shoe- makers to make one shoe. Then the shoemaker with his hammer struck heavy blows on the soles of his shoes forming them to his last, now he strikes heavy blows, which trouble the soul of the manufacturer, when he reflects how rich he has become, and how much poorer are the shoemakers who do his work, than were the shoemakers of sixty years ago, when each worked for himself in a little shop of his own. Then boys were sent to the shoemaker for "strap oil;" now the poor shoemaker is more frequently "strapped"
than the boys. Then every man who was considered worthy to live was a laborer, and every one who worked had plenty to eat, for the laborer was consid- ered worthy of his hire. Now we have Knights of La- bor. "Knights" originated in the Dark Ages, and with them came the Crusades. Darkness again broods over the nations. Now is the Night time of Labor. The sepulehre of independent labor needs rescuing from the barbarous control of the Saracen monopoly of the manufacturer. This monopoly has crushed the business of the shoemaker, cheapened the price of shoes, and compelled the laborer to work for him at unremunerative prices, whilst he, the manufacturer, lays up his thousands yearly. Wealth and monopoly forbid the shoemaker to live by the sweat of his brow. He may not breathe the pure air of heaven; the in- pure air of colossal manufactories is good enough for
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him and his children. He may not eat the rich fruits of God's earth; pulse, lentels and husks are good enough for him. Darkness broods! Shall chaos come again?
If labor joins hands with anarchy the worst is to be feared; but if labor joins hands with capital, on the reasonable basis of live and let live, then the fu- ture will be brighter than the past. The two cannot be divorced without destruction to both.
CARPENTERS AND JOINERS.
Sixty years ago and more, when every board used in building was planed by hand, seemingly every person who had the muscle to drive a plane was a carpenter. They were only machines; what they accomplished is now done by mill work. The early builders in James- town were Milton and Levi Sherwin, Capt. Horatio Dix, Plinny Cass, Ezra Marvin, Abraham Staples and per- haps a few others. The first structures erected for res- idences were not large but respectable. The farm houses and barns nearly all of them were built with logs; but five log tenements were ever erected at the rapids and they were cabins, not houses. The first mills and factories were large, well-built structures put up by educated workmen. As timber and boards were cheap, the early houses in town were generally made of superior material although plain in appearance. The scarcity and great cost of nails and hardware was among the greatest drawbacks to building. Many a good house we remember in which the floors were fastened with wooden pins instead of nails. * Nearly all the glass was of the 7x9 variety. When 10x12 and somewhat larger glass came in, some would not use it
* This was the case in the house in which we spent our child- hood's days.
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for fear their neighbors would think they were becom- ing proud. Our early blacksmiths made some hinges and door latches, but a majority of those were the handiwork of the carpenter. We well remember a set of wooden door hangings for a nice door in a nice house, that then we thought were the finest, most art- istic of any in town, and have not lived long enough to change our mind. Hickory and ash made the best of door latches and catches.
Who has not read of the" latch string hanging out?" If the string was pulled in.the house was locked. We have knocked at many a door when a boy, and heard the loud salutation from within " walk " or " come in," both meaning the same. "Walk " meant walk in, not to walk away. Then a good pull at the latch string and a push on the door and you were in; no one to salute you, all sitting or attending to their business. "How d'du? draw up a cheer and sit. How are you getting on to yure house? right smart I sup- pose. When you start hum want vo tote a hunk of nice venison hum for your folks? ' Bill' this morn- ing knocked over a big buck up on the wheat patch. Confound the deer, they will ruin us yet. They're worsen the wolves. There was near onto an acre and a half of that foller and we got it in airly and all in first rate style with best Mohawk seed brot in by old Jo Loucks, but the deer have eten it nigh all up. Well, ' Bill' must try and take pay outen their hides. But Freeman and Pier don't 'low to a white man near as much for a good pelt as they gives to the pesky, dirty Injuns. I'me near mind to go back to old Harkimer, and let the new country die out." The above is part of a composition written in 1828, and as transpiring in 1825.
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In early times the fashionable color for a house was that of the original wood ; the more stylish houses, however, received a coat of Venetian red mixed up in sour milk. We remember two painted white, but the owners were considered extravagant and as setting a bad example. Henry Baker used to say that the first keg of pure white lead ever used in town was put on his house on the north side of Third street between Washington and Lafayette streets, which was built in 1827.
There has been as great a change with the carpen- ters as with the shoemakers. Fifty years ago, if a man was going to build a house, the first thing to do was to draw upon the ground a number of large timbers. There the carpenter had to lay out the frame, cutting a tenon here, and digging out a mortice there, in one place for a post and in another for a joist. In those days it took a learned man, at least in old Pike's or Daboll's Arith- metic to be a carpenter. When all framed, the sticks were put in their proper places and pinned together in what were called bents; then all the neighbors for miles round were invited to the raising. A "raising bee " was somewhat similar to a logging bee, leaving out the eatables. We have none of these pleasant social raisings now, where some giant of the neighbor- hood could show off how much he could lift, and an- other how readily he could handle a pikepole ; and where the important boss, standing in some conspicu- ous place, swung his arms in a circle, squatting low and then quickly regaining the perpendicular, and crying with all of his might, "he ho, he, up she goes." The children do not build as the fathers built. It now re- quires but two men to put up the frame of a large house. Then it was the labor of months to put up an ordinary
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house ; every board used had to be planed and sawed and fitted by the joiners. Now nearly all is done at the mills, there are no heavy timber frames, and all the carpenter has to do is to put the various parts in their proper places.
COOPERING.
Coopering was one of the industries of early times. Many who had settled as farmers were mechanics, and especially coopers, and employed their spare time in making pails, wash tubs, etc., which they would sell to their less mechanical neighbors or barter at the stores for tea, tobacco, cotton cloth, or other necessaries. Jesse Carrier was the first to set up coopering as a business in Jamestown. His house was on the north side of first street about equi distant between Cherry and Washington streets. The street that once existed in that locality was destroyed by the excava- vation for the railway. He built a shop facing Cherry street on the northeast corner of the lot now occupied by the W. D. Shaw residence. The demand for such ware was not great, and Carrier eked out a living by building skiffs for use on the lake.
SHINGLE WEAVING was a common industry among the early inhabitants of Ellicott, not only among the farmers but among the towns people. The timber cost only the sawing into bolts and hauling to the shanty. If a person had nothing else to do he would shave shingles. Shingles, next to Spanish coin, was the best article any one could have with which to buy the nec- essaries of life. In those days we had poor people, but no paupers. If one would eat he must work, and it was a poor specimen of humanity that could not shave a shingle. If there happened to be any lazy fellow in the settlement not willing to support himself, he was
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sure to be hired in the spring to go down the river on a raft, and nine times out of ten he never returned. A walk through the wilderness from Pittsburg or Cincin- nati would be more than such a person could endure. Southern Indiana sixty years ago must have had all the inhabitants of this class they could possibly desire.
In early times a bunch of shingles was legal ten- der at any store, shop, or place of business in James- town. It was formerly told of A. F. Allen and D. Allen when heavily engaged in lumbering and also selling goods in Jamestown, an old customer who had always paid in shingles made large purchases at their store and offered cashr in payment which the Allens refused, say- ing, " We do not want your money, are you not going to let us have your shingles ?" "Well, I don't know," was the reply. " Let old Guy (Guy Carl Irvine) have all we had at the shanty yesterday. He gives us ten cents a bunch more than you offered, delivered at Buck- tooth." A F. Allen spent the whole day with that man and finally had a written contract for his shingles for three years, the first $300 worth of goods bought by him to be paid at the end of three years in shingles, the second $300 worth in two years in shingles, the balance of account at the end of three years, to be on the usual one-year time with interest, payable in shingles, and he to let the Allens have all the shingles he made, the Allens to pay ten cents a thousand more than Irvine would pay, and also pay the hauling from the shanty to Bucktooth ; cash to be paid for one-half of the shin- gles each year in June. "By Goll, 'Dasc,' we will let old Carl know that he don't own the Allegheny river yet." " Mind your oar, 'Gust,' and keep the current. Old Jake will make nigh on to two millions this year, and they are the best hanled out on the Cincinnati
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beach, and will fetch fifty cents a bunch more than any other. I can sell all you buy and not half try. I guess I will write down to York and have Connover & LeBaugh send us an extra thousand dollars' worth of Orleans sugar and molasses, and three or four more hogsheads of codfish, and get 'em through before the canal closes ; and I will have Levi Cook send up $50 worth more of those beads for the squaws to put on moccasins, for Old Jake will put a draw shave into the hands of every Indian between Cold Spring and Tun- amagwont."
AXES AND EDGED TOOLS.
Excepting the axes and edged tools which the set- tlers brought into the country with them-and that supply we have always understood was bountiful- all were made in the country. It was seldom that the pioneer brought with him into the wilderness less than two good axes and many of them half a dozen and even more. Broad axes and shingle shaves were also brought in liberal supply, but of the latter, it was soon learned that those made here, for the service required, were superior to those they had brought from Ver- mont and elsewhere. The Harveys especially, made very superior edged tools, and those who desired some- thing extra were willing to pay their extra prices. They declared that facilities not within the reach of a wild- erness blacksmith, were required to make the manu- facture of axes and broad axes, a remunerative employ- ment at prices at which the article should be pro- duced. Father Crane devoted much of his time to the making of axes and other edged tools. Pearl Johnson, who came into the village somewhere be- tween 1826 and 1828, devoted his entire attention to the manufacture of edged tools of all kinds. Butcher,
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carving and chopping knives he kept constantly in stock of sizes and shapes to suit all, but shingle shaves. were the articles produced by him in largest quanti- ties. No shingle weaver would be long without one of Pearl Johnson's shaves if he could procure one. He advertised his shaves as the "best the world produced." " All those who want shaves of a 'superior article' will take care that l'. J., is stamped on them, as no others are of my make." The first establishment for the ex- clusive manufacture of axes, I think, was at the head of the lake near Barnhart's by a man named Barnes, Edmund Edgerton, a workman of Barnes', and Lyman Crane afterwards built an axe and edged tool manu- factory at Dexterville, East Jamestown. They not only supplied this country with axes, but southern and western wood choppers soon learned their superiority, and they were taken down the river in great quanti- ties. Axe making still continues to be one of the prominent industries of Jamestown.
GUN SMITHING.
The making and repairing of guns was a flourish- ing industry in Jamestown sixty years ago. When Jamestown was but a small village there were two prosperous gun shops at the same time. Both estab- lishments commenced business on Second street. That of Cyrus W. Jackson was across the alley west of Crane's shop and on the east end of Jason Palmeter's lot; that of Owen VanDyke on the opposite side of the street and a few feet farther east. Jackson's estab- lishment was the most extensive of the two, employ- ing at one time four journeymen gun makers and two apprentices, VanDyke having but two men besides himself. The last made but one quality of gun; they differed in size and appearance, but the price was the
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same; with him $22 was the invariable price for a VanDyke rifle. These establishments for a few years did an immense business, not only in making new guns, but in changing old ones. At that time, first, pill percussion, but soon after cap percussion for prim- ing became known. There was but one percussion gun in the town at that time and that was of the pill percussion variety and belonged to the writer and was well known in early days in Jamestown as "Old Kill Deer"-a name taken I believe from Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. The country was yet a wilder- ness and nearly every man in it, whatever might be his business otherwise, was more or less a hunter.
In nearly every house was a "stack" of old fashioned flint lock guns. Besides rifles there were a large num- ber of United States muskets and old Queen Ann arms as they were called. The most of them were with broken locks, and all of them useless. The first great work was to convert the flint lock rifles into percus- sion guns and by the time this was accomplished, the owner generally imagined he wanted a new gun. The gunsmith in changing the lock would find other things needed, and after making a bill of several dollars for repairs would find a flaw or imperfection somewhere, and of course a new gun was ordered For the new gun from $25 to $40 was paid according to the number of pieces of silver (pewter) with which the stock of the gun was ornamented. Frequently the old gun on which had just been paid $10 or $12 in repairs was sold for $5 in part payment for the new gun, and this with a couple of days' labor was trans- mogrified into a new gun as valuable as the one for which it was exchanged. Up to the advent of the gunmakers a person would be laughed at if seen car-
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rying a musket, especially if it was loaded with any- thing less dangerous than a ball or slugs. The woods abounded in partridges, squirrels, quail and other game, but no one was expected to shoot at anything smaller than a deer, a bear, or a wolf. After all the flint-loek rifles were converted into percussion guns and hundreds of new rifles sold, a new dodge was re- sorted to, and that was to supercede the rifles by shot guns. Jackson brought with him specimens of shot guns and old muskets done over into shotguns, and would go out and bring in great strings of partridges and squirrels. They were smaller animals to be sure but much more palatable than the coarse bear's meat and the too frequently poor venison on which we had been feeding. The woods were choek full of this deli- cate food, but we must have shotguns, Jackson used to say, if we would enjoy it; rifle balls left nothing but a mangled mass, unfit for food. Straightway all the old Queen Anns, and United States muskets were convert- ed into shotguns. and the younger hunters were prouder of their fowling pieces than ever were the older ones of their rifles. As near as I can recolleet these palmy days for gunsmiths ended about 1835. For many years afterwards there was no regular gun- smith in Jamestown.
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