USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Ellicott > The early history of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, N.Y. > Part 25
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that aided ignorant Jo. Smith to start this humbug in Ontario county. He had been a Baptist minis- ter, but as such had been noted for qualities bet- ter fitting him as a teacher in the Mormon iniquity than for a Christian minister. Whether Rigdon or Spaulding or some one else wrote the Book of Mormon is a matter of slight importance, but he had the educa- tion, the smartness, the love of deceit, and all the other devilish qualities of head and heart, to make him one of the best men in the world for such an undertaking. He was present with Jo., or more correctly, we think, Jo. with him, when the angel gave to Jo. the golden plates of Nephi in the presence of Cowdrey, Whitman and Harris. In 1833 he was a fine appearing, pleasant spoken, agreeable man, and made several friends among the unbelievers of Jamestown. Barker was a mean looking chap, and was meaner than he looked ; disagreeable in person, harsh and low in speech, igno- rant and as thoroughly contemptible as bigotry and zeal could make him. He was a man who had never known ought of the laws of kindness, or the luxury of doing good. In his whole body and soul there was not the first particle of love or charity or human kind- ness. He was a fit person to be a leader of Mormon- ism, in which he most thoroughly believed. Rigdon drew a general order on Judge Prendergast to supply all Mormons with flour or feed, the individual orders to be countersigned by Wm. Barker. Judge Prender- gast from time to time drew his drafts on the bank of Kirkland, Ohio, which were promptly paid. They had frequent religious exercises and preaching, generally we think in the street in front of their dwellings. Dur- ing this Mormon exodus and occupation of West Jamestown, the small pox broke out in one of the Mor-
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mon houses. At that time the " peculiar people" did not allow the ministrations of physicians, depending on the power and efficiency of prayer to cure all dis- eases. A Jamestown convert to the faith believing the case to be small pox privately informed Dr. Hazeltine. A town counsel was held and the trustees sent Dr. Ha- zeltine and Dr. Stephen I. Brown, of Busti, to examine. With difficulty they performed their mission and re- ported genuine small pox. Then commenced the Jamestown Mormon war. They not only were deter- mined that the physicians should not visit the patients, but they would allow no white flags or signs, warning citizens of the pestilence within the houses. The phy- sicians found it impossible to visit the patients and declared that it would be useless if they could, for no one would administer medicines. The citizens con- tented themselves with putting a fence across Third street at Lafayette, and another near the beatlanding, and interdicting the denizens of this Gomorrah coming into the town. A few who tried to travel eastward on Third street beyond Lafayette speedily returned com- plaining of headache. The arch fiend himself, Bar- ker, tried it, fainted by the way, and lay in the street near Lafayette until carried back by some ef his clan. It was never judicially decided whether he fainted or ran against a hickory cane in the hands of " Big Sim- mons," the watchman. The last of the Mormons left Jamestown in the spring of 1834. They made very few converts here, but among them was John Fent, author of Fent's Arithmetic, and family, and J. Sanford Hol- man, the blacksmith before mentioned, and his wife. Holman was a good citizen and a loss to the village. 'The Mormons were quite welcome to all else they took away from Jamestown. Worn out by frequent mov-
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ings and fatigue, Holman died at Council Bluffs on his way to Salt Lake city.
BAPTISTS.
The first Baptist to settle in Jamestown so far as the recollection of the oldest inhabitant extends or can say to the contrary, was John C. Breed, "the deacon," as he was familiarly known. When this chapter was written Mr. Breed was alive and well, but a few days ago he passed away. See chapter six. John C. Breed came to Jamestown in January, 1822, an unusually proper, good-looking young man. His influence upon the young people of that period was very happy, prob- ably because they had not been accustomed to find true piety and so large a share of health, strength and good looks combined in the same person. He was a constant attendant and took an active part in the meetings at Prendergast academy, for at that time there were no other meetings to attend. E'er long he mar- ried Olive, a daughter of Solomon Jones, and the handsomest girl in town, and the best singer.
Whether it was through Breed's instrumentality we cannot say, but in the fall of 1823 a Sunday-school was established, the first in the settlements, at the old academy, and he was made the superintendent. There were no regular teachers in this Sabbath school. There were quite as many adults and church members who attended as children, and Mr. Breed would select there- from a sufficient number to hear the recitations and to report the number of verses each one recited. The school was not divided into classes then as now, each class having a selected teacher. It was the duty of each scholar to learn as many verses in the testament, commencing with the first chapter of the Gospel of St.
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John, as he could during the week, and these he recited to some person appointed to hear them. Each scholar was rewarded with tickets according to the number of verses recited. These tickets were of different sizes and colors according to the number of verses committed to memory. For five verses a very small, inferior looking ticket was given ; for ten, one a trifle larger ; for twenty, a respectable one ; for fifty, a fair sized blue one ; and for 100 verses a large sized, good looking red ticket. Louisa Jones (Mrs. J. E. Chapin,) and William Deland we observed received many red tickets, and we asked for one. Mr. Breed replied that when we recited 100 verses at once we should have one. The next Sunday we carried home and exhibited to our delighted mother a red ticket, and frequently after that two reds and a blue. We doubt very much if we should have received as many red tickets as we did, if it had not been for a ruse of our father. If for any reason we needed pun- ishment, we were sentenced according to the enormity of our offence, to sit down and not get up until we had committed to memory ten, twenty or fifty verses. The Sunday-school and our paternal parent made a perfect system of rewards and punishments for us. In those early days the entire care and management of the Sun- day-school devolved on the superintendent. We pre- sume there are no superior superintendents now in the Sabbath schools, and we claim that John C, Breed was the best ever in Jamestown. He knew just how to talk to children, to gain their good will. their love and affec- tion. Every one loved John C. Breed, the superin- tendent of the first Sabbath school ever taught in this town. He has gone where he will be rewarded with red tickets.
The writer's recollection is that there was a Baptist
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organization here as early as 1825 or '26. He is posi- tive that there was one before the Mormon excitement. Be that as it may, the Baptist church of Jamestown do not claim an organization previous to 1832, according to Young's history. During this same year (1832) they built a large, good looking barn on the site of their present church and called it a meeting house. It looked like a barn on the outside, excepting the win- dows, but in the inside was comfortable and church- like in appearance. The Baptists worshiped in this building twenty-five years and then (1857) sold it, and it was moved away for a mechanic's shop. They then built the present church-like edifice in which they now worship. The Rev. Rufus Pratt was the first settled Baptist minister in Jamestown, and he died here April 2, 1829. The earlier ministers at this church were Da- vid Bernard, Asahel Chapin, Rufus Peet, Alfred Handy and others.
A little more than 40 years ago a young man named Blakesly,* a student in the Oberlin college, considered it his duty to speak upon the crime of slavery during his vacation, and came to Jamestown for that purpose. He delivered three lectures at the Baptist church. There was great excitement when it was announced that there would be a lecture there upon the subject of slavery. At the conclusion a second lecture was an- nounced for the next day. The excitement spread like wild fire. He was warned to leave town. Tar, feathers, etc .. were plainly spoken of, and if he persist- ed, death to the Abolitionist more than hinted at. A
* In our newspaper article we unaccountably mixed up our re- collections of this person with Prof. Fairchild who became the hus- band of Marcia Kellogg, one of Jamestown's most excellent daugh- ters.
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third leeture was announced. Jamestown and vicinity was never more excited than then. On the afternoon of his last harangue the Baptist church was a danger- ous place to be in. The church was crowded ; more than half present were there for the lecturer's protec- tion, but the crowd outside was double and triple of that within, gathered from all parts of the country. We believe that if some man in that excited crowd more crazy than the rest, could have reached the lec- turer he would have killed him, and this was pre- vented by Hiram Eddy, who, when he left the church after the third lecture ran by his side with his right hand in his coat collar, and would occasionally give him a flying leap ahead of ten feet or more. The crowd pressing too hard, Eddy threw the little lec- turer over a five-foot garden fence, and as he proved a good runner, was in a place of safety before the mob had realized what had happened.
The early Baptists as well as the religious societies already mentioned, had their worldly troubles, their bickerings and their quarrels. At one time a Baptist brother, "one that paid," wanted to dismiss their min- ister, an eloquent man, because he was not " edicated." A quarrel and a dismissal followed. The Baptists have had some very unhappy quarrels and more than one unhappy minister. But such devoted Christians and eloquent preachers as Bernard, Chapin, Wells and Haughwout cover a multitude of short comings.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
Young's history states that the Episcopal church of Jamestown was organized in 1853. St. Luke's church of Jamestown was organized and wardens and vestry- men chosen previous to the writer's leaving home for college which was in 1833. How long previous we can-
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not state. We believe about two years. But the soci- ety was too poor to build a church or even to hire a clergyman. In 1853 a few friends of the church, the writer one of them, were seriously talking of hiring a clergyman. They wanted church services for their fathers and mothers, wives and sisters, if not for them- selves. One evening Wm. F. Wheeler and Wm. H. Lowry, going home to tea, happened to meet John M. Grant, Smith Seymour. and the writer, at the corner of Main and Third streets, and they had a conversation concerning hiring the basement of the academy and fitting it up for church services. While they were talk- ing their friend, the Rev. Mr. Blinn, came along and inquired, "Boys, what mischief are you at now ?" The writer replied, " Do you see the old Fletcher place up there ? We are going to buy that and build thereon a church that will knock the spots off your Presbyter- ian church down there." "Good for you," says Blinn; "do so and I will come and be your priest, and permit me to give you this as the first donation towards the church," at the same time handing me an old fash- ioned copper cent. This was all pleasant badinage be- tween friends. We were all sincere friends of Mr. Blinn and he of us. He thought nothing wrong and meant nothing wrong. Mr. Wheeler held up his hand and made oath that within two years that penny should be deposited in the corner stone of an Episcopal church in Jamestown, and turning to his four compan- ions said-"as I swear so swear you all." They an- swered in the affirmative. Blinn then remarked, "I fear we have been making light of serious things ; and I will now say if you can build a church on the strength of that penny, you are doubly welcome to it and I bid you God speed .. " This is very near the conversation.
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That evening seven of us subscribed $500 each for building a church, and the next day the amount was nearly doubled. Blinn's cent was the main argument used in obtaining subscribers. At noon the next day we were owners of the lots on which the church and parsonage are built, Mr. Tew having conveyed them to us to be used for that especial purpose. The Rev. Levi W. Norton was shortly engaged as rector, the basement of the academy was rented and prepared for church services, and all the friends of the church were happy, none more so than our friend the Rev. Mr. Blinn. The church was erected the next season, and the copper cent with its history well engraved, deposited in the corner stone. A few years afterwards the church was burned. The contents of the box in the corner stone were not injured, and were, penny included, deposited in the corner stone of the present structure.
In our last conversation with Mr. Blinn he said, " You fellows to whom I gave the penny have done well. I wish I could invest another penny that would yield a like increase."
Jamestown has now many churches, how many we do not know. Since the time above spoken of we have gained a large Swede population. Among them are several church organizations and they have already erected four respectable churches, and now I understand another is spoken of. We have also gained a large and respectable Irish addition to our popula- tion, mostly Roman Catholic. A large church edifice at present is sufficient for their church needs.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE BAD DISTRICTS-WHIPPING THE SCHOOL MASTER -LOG SCHOOL HOUSES-FIRST SCHOOLS IN JAMES- TOWN -- THOS. WALKUP AND THE BIRD NEST ROB- BERS -PINE STREET SCHOOL HOUSE - EARLY TEACHERS-JUTY SMITH-OLD PUT TAKES A RIDE -THE ACADEMY-ITS TEACHERS AND PUPILS- THE JAMESTOWN ACADEMY.
A few evenings ago after a half hour spent in dil- igent writing concerning our early schools and school- masters, we laid our pad of paper aside, to allow our little pond of remembrances to fill up again. Wehave with sufficient accuracy ascertained that our reservoir for thoughts is quite thoroughly drained by an hour's active use of the pencil. We soon fell into a deep re- verie over what were called the hard districts of those early times. Districts in which besides the troop of children, were, in some localities, perhaps a dozen big unruly boys, with well developed muscles, full of strength and fight, and double the number of half big ones, boys of 13 or 14 years of age, but as stout and surly and as full of mischief and undeveloped strength as little mules. In these districts the first thing to be done at the commencement of each winter's school,
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was to break all rules and whip the school master. It took the stoutest, double breasted fellows in the coun- try to manage one of these schools, and teachers for them were quite as frequently chosen for their bodily strength as for their mental qualifications; and even such were quite as frequently thoroughly whipped, thrown out into the road, and then pelted with mud, or snow balls, until finally glad to beat a rapid retreat not stopping until the confines of the district were reached. This disposition to whip the school master we find was no new thing; it did not originate in the settlements, or in this country, or in this age. This is proven by a ease related by an old Latin author over two thousand years ago which we translate into verse as best we ean for our edification. It strikes us as be- ing appropriate, and descriptive of the condition of things in the bad district of sixty years ago:
Once the master was obeyed and feared Till youth was wise and fit to govern-but now When he admonishes a child of only seven years, The brat huris the tablets at his head.
You to his father go and make complaint,
And what redress is given? 'Tis this: "Ah-ha! old bum-bruiser,
My boy you find, can, himself defend,
Spank him if you deem best-and can." This is the solace given; you
Lop your ears in silence, sneak away, And next are seen With cracked pate beplastered-and face bepatched Like an ill-used paper lantern.
EARLY SCHOOLS OF ELLICOTT.
Among the many comforts and advantages to which the early inhabitants of Jamestown were in- debted to Judge James Prendergast, were the extra ac-
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commodations for schools, and the superior school teachers he bestowed upon them from 1814 to 1822 at his own cost. He set a high value upon education and as the early settlers at the rapids, having children of a proper age to attend school, were too poor to fur- nish either school-room or teacher, he furnished both, and insisted strenuously, that all children between the ages of six and fifteen should be sent to school, which he made free to all without reference to age. The first schools taught here were attended by several over twenty-five years of age, who then for the first time learned to read and write. The school rooms provid- ed by Judge Prendergast for these schools were first class for those times and the teachers collegiates.
The first school houses in the town of Ellicott, out of Jamestown, as well as in other parts of the county were like the settlers' dwellings, built of logs. A log school house was easily distinguished from a dwelling by not being as high, as no sleeping room, reached by a ladder, was necessary upon an upper floor, and also by the shape of the windows. The writer during the winter 1825-26 lived with his grandfather in Busti and attended the school-over a mile distant, taught by an uncle of his, in one of these log school houses. The writing desk for the larger scholars was along one end and about one-half of each of the sides. This was nothing more than a shelf made with wide boards sup- ported by long pins driven into auger holes in the logs. Just above this desk were four long windows only two or three glass high, one on each side and two at the end. The seats were trees, split in two and made tolerably smooth by hewing, with pins driven into the lower rounded sides for legs. A row of these were placed before the desks. Through the center of
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the room were several of these long slab benches, all without backs, for the smaller scholars. In the other end of the building was the big Dutch fire place, the hearth of which was the ground, and this piled full of logs four feet long or more kept the place sufficiently warm. Between the front benches and the fire was the master's table, and a bolt sawed from a big maple tree by the side of the table was the dunce block. If a scholar large or small, male or female, was so dull or inattentive as not to get his or her lesson, the dullard's head was ornamented with a tall, pyramidal paper cap, leather spectacles were tied over the eyes and were then politely conducted to and placed on this block by two school mates of the opposite sex. Without excep- tion, it was great fun for the scholars to see this exhi- bition; the one on the block looked so droll, so queer, so verily like a fool, that every one laughed at his ex- pense, and the blockhead appeared to think he was a fool, and would willingly exchange his place for half a dozen sound floggings. At least, so it appeared to us, for we were never placed there ourself, we had a wholesome dread of it from the beginning and worked dilligently at our lessons, and, perhaps, our uncle had a little regard for our feelings. The punishment of the dunce block was reserved for those who were neg- ligent in learning their lessons, and we believe that if it had been retained at least for these cases, it would have proved the greatest spur to diligence among all the forms of punishment that have yet been invented. The beech and the birch, the switch and the gad, were reserved for the more flagrant breach of school and moral law. And our own observation and re- membrance is, that the thorougly bad boy would pre- fer a flogging that would place him hors de combat for
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a week, than to spend one hour on the dunce block.
The first school ever taught in Jamestown was during the fall and winter of 1814 and 1815, in the north room of the Blowers house before mentioned. The teacher was the Rev. Amasa West who received his education at Williams College and who was the first minister who resided here. There attended this school seven children and irregularly three or four adults. Wm. H. Fenton, the present patriarch of Jamestown, and Seneca, his brother, and Rebecca, his sister, (Mrs. Abram Jones) still living, and Alexander T. Prendergast, all were pupils in this first school. The school commenced the first of December and con- tinued four months.
As the Blowers house had been sold to Dr. Hazel- tine and the Academy building not completed, in fact at this time the frame was not up, Judge Prendergast, with rough boards, partitioned off a room in the cot- ton factory for a school, and Abner Hazeltine, who but a short time previous had graduated at Williams Col- lege and was expected to arrive at the rapids in No- vember, was, through Dr. Laban Hazeltine, engaged as teacher. Abner Hazeltine opened his school soon after his arrival in November and continued it for five months. Seventeen children and eleven "large schol- ars" attended this school. Alexander T. Prendergast commenced the study of Latin; Phineas Palmiter, Plinny Cass, two daughters of Horatio Dix, Alex. T. Prendergast, and occasionally others made the first class in English grammer ever taught in Jamestown. This class had a "parsing school" once a week in the evening. which was generally attended by Judge Prendergast, Dr. Hazeltine, Deacon Dix and others. Several came from what are now the towns of Kian-
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tone and Busti to these parsing schools. As many as could were expected to bring a Murray's grammar, Murray's English reader, Milton's Paradise Lost and a tallow candle, otherwise the parsing school was free to all who were sufficiently advanced in knowledge of English grammar to take a part. There attended these parsing schools some as finished grammarians as could be found in any country. This, the second school taught in the settlement, took the name of Prendergast's Academy. That name was given to it by Abner Hazeltine; first, because the Judge paid the teacher; second, on account of the imposing building in which the school was taught and lastly because of this parsing school and because the Junto called it A. B. Abs Academy. It became the regular name of the Jamestown school during the three seasons it was taught by Abner Hazeltine, and the select schools taught in the village up to the advent of John Foster Allen in the year 1830, then the "Prendergast " was dropped and The Academy was spoken of; after- wards under Lysander Farrar as the "Jamestown Academy." In the fall and winter of 1816 and 1817 Abner Hazeltine taught in Keyes's shop chamber, it having been found difficult to heat the room in the cotton factory with any appliances then on hand. Prendergast's new academy building, the "old acad- emy" frequently spoken of in these papers, became use- able in the fall of 1817, and Abner Hazeltine's third and last school was taught therein in the winter of 1817 and '18. The building was especially erected as a place for religious services, for at a meeting at Dr. Hazeltine's house at which were present Judge Prend- ergast, Dr. Hazeltine, Abner Hazeltine, Daniel Hazel- tine and Jacob Fenton and others, held a few days af-
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ter the organization of the Congregational Church, it was represented to Judge P. that there was no place for meetings but at the taverns, which were inconven- ient and inappropriate, and as he had declared his in- tention of putting up a building for that purpose and that as the timber for the same had been got out the year previously and was on the ground and par- tially framed by Deacon Dix and Ebenezer Sherwin, they asked him to put up the frame and enclose a por- tion of it that it might be used for meetings. Judge Prendergast replied that he had expected that Captain Dix would have completed the building the fall pre- vious, but work for Cass prevented; that both Dix and Sherwin were then engaged on Freeman's house and Pier and Freeman's hat factory. If any one could be found to do the work he would put up and enclose the building immediately. That it was not necessary to go to the taverns; they could use the academy room in Keyes's shop. He did not believe there was dan- ger of its breaking down as some believed. No one was found to engage in the putting up of the building until the next year. Israel Knight, a builder who came to the rapids in 1815 and who was then engaged in putting up a building for John Frank in Busti, took the job for early the next season but did not com- mence work before midsummer. The first school taught therein was by Abner Hazeltine in the fall and winter of 1817 and '18. The school in the fall of 1819 was a writing and grammar school taught in Keyes's shop chamber by a Mr. Flack who made the teaching of writing and grammar a specialty. * Many more
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