USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Ellicott > The early history of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, N.Y. > Part 3
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CHAPTER II.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY .- PRENDERGAST'S FIRST WORK AT THE RAPIDS .- ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT .- SKETCH OF WILLIAM BEMUS.
T HE present appears to be one of those periods of upheaval not only in methods pursued in all kinds of labor, but has become also a governing influence in all the professions, arts and pursuits of life. . A new principle in political economy is requesting to become established as the guide in all human transactions. Many appear to submit to this new movement, and the majority appear to be guided by it. To the " mind's eye " it is seen posted up in our legislative halls and in all of the departments of government. It is emblazoned upon all our mills and factories. We find it on all of the steamboats and railroad cars. It is cut in letters of gold on the doors of palatial resi- dences,-it is scribbled with charcoal and chalk on the hovels of the poor and starving. It has become the universal guide, and yet every one knows that it is a false one. Many of the rich and those who think they
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
see riches within their grasp view it as the stepping stone to greater wealth ; the lazy and non-supporting dangerous classes, the degraded hater of his race, whose greatest pleasure would be to imbue his hands in his neighbor's blood, -- the nihilist and the anarchist are equally its dangerous supporters. What is to be the result ? We apprehend that the danger is more apparent than real.
The labor question which so agitates the country at the present day, and threatens with all of the evils of Socialism, and even with the horrors of An- archy, destructive alike to life and civilization, is not one of the present times only. In many respects the agitation and danger was greater 200 years ago than now. Then it was almost impossible to introduce la- bor saving machines of any kind. The idea that a machine might accomplish some labor possible to man brought together a mob, and the suspected machinery was immediately destroyed. As an example, the first saw mill was erected in England in 1653 ; the moby seeing that the mill would save an immensity of labor then performed by man, (much to his physical hurt, for but few could withstand the severe labor of the saw pit for over half a dozen years without becoming unfitted for even the lightest labor of the farm,) col- lected and in a short time the offending mill was torn down. Ignorant, excited men cannot be made to see the great benefits that labor saving machinery confers upon all alike, the poor equally with the rich ; they can only see that the machine will do the labor of 20 or of 50 men-that is enough-the machine must be destroyed, or 50 men starve, is the height and depth of their philosophy. The excitement of to-day will be exceeded by the calm of to-morrow.
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
To the better understanding of our history it is obviously necessary to go back to the first of the pres- ent century, (1802,) when the county of Genesee was set off from the county of Ontario, the former com- prising all of the territory of New York State lying west and south of the present county of Ontario, in- cluding the present counties of Genesee, Orleans, Niagara, Erie, Wyoming, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and the western four-fifths of Allegany. Up to 1804 the western portion of the state was all comprised in the county of Genesee, and the present counties of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie and Niagara belonged to the town of Batavia.
The town of Chautauqua was formed from the town of Batavia, April 11th, 1804, and comprised all the present county of Chautauqua, except "range" 10 of the Holland Company's surveys. This county was. therefore, at that time made the town of Chautauqua, Genesee county. In what is now the town of Chautauqua there was then no settler. The first settler, according to most trustworthy ac- counts, was " Dr." Alexander McIntyre, who lived at the sulphur spring in the gulf south of Westfield vil- lage, long called "the MeIntyre Spring." In June, 1805, Filer Sackett settled near Dewittville, and in September Peter Barnhart settled near what is now Point Chautauqua.
The first town meeting, or election, ever held in this county was at what was then known as the Cross Roads, now Westfield, in April, 1805. At that time John McMahan, who was the first purchaser of land in the county, if not the first settler, was elected Super- visor and James Montgomery Town Clerk. Col. James McMahan's land, or farm, was on the west side of the
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
Portage road, and Edward McHenry's widow lived on the east side of the Portage road, at the Cross Roads, and she kept a little "tavern " there for many years. Her husband was drowned in 1803. This was the first known death of a white settler in the county. His son John, born the previous year (1802) was the first white child born in the county. Gen. John Mc- Mahan settled near the mouth of Chautauqua creek, on the west side of the Portage road. He built the first grist mill in the county in 1804, and the old mill race is still plainly visible. James Montgomery set- tled west of the Cross Roads in 1803. He was married in 1805, and this was, we believe, the first marriage in the county.
David Eason and Perry G. Ellsworth were com- missioned justices in 1806 and were the first for Chautauqua county. In 1808 Chautauqua was divided into two townships, the line running from north to south, from Lake Erie to the state line, the parts be- ing nearly equal in area ; the new town on the east of the line being Pomfret and the one on the west Chau- tauqua. The present town of Ellicott was then a part of the town of Pomfret.
In 1805 a post route was established between Buf- falo and Presque Isle (Erie) the mail to be carried once in two weeks. On May 6th, 1806, the first post office was established in Chautauqua County, at the Cross Roads ; it was called Chautauqua, and Col. James Mc- Mahan was appointed postmaster. On June 18, 1806, the second post office was established and called Can- adaway ; it was located about four miles east of Fre- donia, near what is now Sheridan Centre. The office at Fredonia was established in 1809 ; the post office at Mayville in 1812 ; and was the only office "south of
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
the ridge" until Dec. 13, 1816, when a post office was established at Jamestown.
Horatio Gates Spafford, who compiled the Gazetteer of New York which was published in Albany in 1813, spells the name of the county Chautauqua, though the final a was changed to an e later on, why and for what reasons is not clear. Several years ago the original and correct spelling was restored, and undue credit for the change given to a single individual.
In the year 1808 Chautauqua, C'attaraugus, Erie and Niagara counties were erected into separate coun- ties, but all of these were parts of Niagara and were attached to Niagara county until each one should have a voting population of five hundred which would entitle it to elect a member of assembly; consequently the member of assembly elected in that year from Niagara county received the votes of Chautauqua's electors. The population did not entitle Chautauqua county to an assemblyman until 1811, although the location of the county buildings was made soon after the division occurred. The commissioners to fix the site were Jonas Williams, Isaac Sullivan and Asa Ransom. The record they made of the manner in which they dis- charged their duties describes in general terms the spot chosen, and that there should be no mistake in iden- tifying the place, a large hemlock post was driven in- to the ground.
At the final organization of the county in 1811 Zattu Cushing was appointed the first judge, and Mat- thew Prendergast, Philo Orton, Jonathan Thompson, William Alexander, associate judges ; John E. Mar- shall, clerk ; and David Eason, sheriff. The first court of common pleas was held in Mayville in June, 1811, when the following attorneys were admitted to
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
practice : Jacob Houghton, Daniel G. Garnsey, Caspar Rouse, Anselm Potter, a Mr. Patton and James Brackett, who was killed at the battle of Black Rock in 1812. Soon after James Mullett, Samuel A. Brown and Abner Hazeltine became students in the law office of Mr. Houghton. The foreman of the first grand jury in the county was the late Gen. Leverett Barker, a brother of the late Wilford Barker of Jamestown.
James Prendergast's was not the first saw mill but the third on the waters running from Chautauqua county to the Allegheny river. Dr. Thomas Kenne- dy of Meadville, who married a daughter of Andrew Ellicott, the celebrated surveyor for the United States under Jefferson, built a saw mill on the Conewango in 1804 at a point long known as Kennedy's Mills ; after- ward as Kennedyville, now as Kennedy. He was a brother-in-law of Joseph Ellicott, the well known men- ber of the Holland Land Company, after whom the town of Ellicott was named. Edward Work, whose family lived in the town of Franklin, Pa., studied law in Meadville ; and after Kennedy had com- menced operations on the Conewango, Work said to him he thought he would make a better lumberman than a lawyer, and asked the privilege of coming in- to the wilderness with him. This was granted and Work remained with Kennedy nearly two years, and in 1806 Work & Kennedy bought 1,000 acres of land three miles below the Rapids, now known as Falconer. In 1808 they erected a saw mill and small grist mill on the outlet at that point which were called Work's Mills ; and eventually Worksburg. Work sold his property to Robert Falconer and others in 1836. In
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
1806, two years previous to the building of Work's mills, William Wilson and one or two others had taken up land between Work's and what is now Le- vant, and George W. Fenton, (father of our late Goy- ernor Reuben E. Fenton), had located at the junction of the outlet and the Cassadagua. James and Joseph Aiken and Laban Case had opened up locations on the Stillwater about three miles away. According to the Holland Land Report there must have been one or two hundred settlers in what are at present the towns of Carroll; Kiantone, Poland and Ellicott, be- fore a single stick was cut at the Rapids.
In 1813 James Prendergast built his second saw mill, located east of Main street and south of the pres- ent railway tracks, as stated in the previous chapter. . In the spring of 1816, after the second of his mills had burned, he erected a third saw mill, the location of which was west of Main street and south of the present rail road track. The Baker manufacturing building which was burned several years ago stood up- on the ancient site of this mill. Between the saw mill and the race previously mentioned was located a grist mill, the north end nearly reaching the race and the other coming within a few feet of the saw mill .* The grist mill was built before the saw mill. In the grist mill were two run of old fashioned flint stones and these were brought down the lake and outlet from May- ville by Henry Shaw and his son Henry, the latter the father of Ira D. Shaw who is now a resident of Jamestown. The upper floor of the grist mill was oc-
" I should be pleased if in some way I could preserve the precise locality of this mill. There has been no building there since the burning of the Baker block. The location is now owned by Mr. L B. Warner, and I am informed he intends to erect a fine block of buildings there the coming summer.
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
cupied by the carding machine of Simmons & Blanch- ar, * and afterwards by Amory and Joseph Stearns for the manufacture of reeds for cloth weaving. Mr. Prendergast at this time also erected on the site of the present Baker brick block on the southwest corner of Main and First streets, sheds and yards for customers of the grist mill. Long and close sheds were built on the north and west sides of the square, and a high and close fence on the south and east sides, leaving an en- closed yard where those put their teams who came too late to secure sheds.
About this time a company was organized who erected an enormous, high, heavy building to be used as a cotton factory. It was five stories in height and its frame was composed of timbers of unusual size which the forests of that period afforded. The inten- tion of those who caused this building to be erected was for a cotton mill, but the plan was never carried out. As far back as we can remember, this building was owned by Judge Prendergast who never made use of it, until he converted it into a grist mill, except one season, when a small room was boarded off for the Prendergast academy, of which more hereafter.
The third saw mill and the grist mill last men- tioned burned down in 1823. It was a heavy loss to the owner and to the town, as all the grain of the in- habitants was stored in the building ; and it was the financial ruin of the Stearns's as they had just received a large stock of cane for reeds. Judge Prendergast with his usual energy set to work and in a short time
* The present owner of the mill in making repairs during the past summer (1886) found timbers and planks used in the deep parts of the mill below the water wheels, as sound as when laid down 82 years ago.
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
had a new and better saw mill on the same foundation, while the cotton mill building was utilized as a flour- ing mill ; four run of stone being put in and all kinds of new machinery then in vogue in flouring, were added. In those days the grinding of grist for the in- habitants was the principal business, though some flour was put up in barrels. After the erection of these mills we have frequently seen in the morning a line of wagons and carts, and boys on horseback sitting on bags, with grain in one end and a stone perhaps in the other to preserve the balance, in a line reaching from the bridge far up Warren street to the point where it is joined by Allen street, coming to the mill ; and this was but part of those who came to have their grain made into flour. The settlers of Pennsylvania even from beyond and below Warren, came to Jamestown for their milling as well as for the largest portion of the merchandise used by them. It was the great mart of the country in those days.
JOSEPH ELLICOTT.
It may be interesting to know something of the history of the man after whom our town was named. The ancestors of Joseph Ellicott were Andrew and Ann Bye Ellicott, natives of the town of Cullopton in Wales. Andrew was a Quaker and his wife was not, consequently he had committed the almost un- pardonable sin of "marrying out of the meeting," and was disowned. Deeming themselves unjustly dealt by, they resolved to flee to the great American wild- erness. Tradition awards to him this eulogy: He was a man of high character in every respect, one of nature's noblemen ; to Ann the praise of being a wo- man of great goodness, worthy of her husband. With an infant son they landed in New York in 1731 and
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
purchased land in Bucks county, Pa. That Ann was a poetess, the following relic bears witness :
Through rocks and sands And enemies, hands And perils of the deep, Father and son From Cullopton The Lord preserve and keep. Ann Bye Ellicott, 1731.
The sons of these pioneers were numerous and in 1770 they purchased a large tract of wild land on the Patapsco in Maryland. They became important men, not only in the state but in the nation. Joseph, the grandson of Andrew, became a member of the Holland Land Company and removed to Batavia in 1798. He had, however, been connected with the company for eight years previous as chief surveyor.
The Hon. S. A. Brown speaks of Ellicott as fol- lows: "Judge Ellicott was possessed of a strong dis- criminating mind, and by reason of the station he oc- cupied, wielded a prodigious political influence: From the avails of a liberal salary, as well as purchases made by him of eligible lots and water privileges, he became very rich. But the latter part of his life was deplorably wretched. He was removed from his agency. He was a stranger to domestic happiness, the only bliss of paradise which survived the fall, for he lived and died a bachelor. Corroded with the cares of wealth, and disappointed in his earthly am- bition, his mind became diseased. His friends on that account thought it advisable to place him in the in- sane asylum in the city of New York. We cannot but shed a tear as we in imagination behold this once in- fluential and distinguished individual entering its gloomy portals. The thrilling language of the poet
-
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
comes to the mind, as he whispers in the car of an in- mate these words addressed to the new comer :
'How can I bid thee welcome to a place
Where joy yet never entered.
To a place where sorrow only reigns,
Groans are our music, and sorrows our companions.'
"After a short stay at the asylum, Judge Ellicott with his own hands destroyed the life God gave."
The town of Ellicott was organized in 1812. It then contained four townships, namely : One and two in the tenth, and one and two in the eleventh range. The townships were divided into 64 lots, of :60 acres each, making 23,040 acres in each township, or 92,160 acres in the first town of Ellicott. James Prendergast was the first supervisor and Ebenezer Davis the first town clerk. In 1814 Mr. Prendergast became county judge. This was the first county office held in the town. The History of the Holland Land Purchase states that the settlement of Chautauqua county was rapid almost from the commencement up to the war of 1812. It had at an early period the high reputation which has been so abundantly justified and demon- strated since and with increasing force through each succeeding decade of the more than eighty years, since Amos Sottle squatted at Silver Creek, or John Mc- Mahan bought land in Ripley. After James Prender- gast got his mills in full operation in 1813 the settle- ment up to 1820 of the south part of the county went on still more rapidly. We can well remember since 1820, up to 1825 or 1826, the emigrants with their covered wagons passing down Main street daily on their way to new homes in the neighboring towns. It was the land of promise with these new settlers, and their hopes were not doomed to disappointment .; but those
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
hopes were not realized until after long years of priva- tion, severe labor and endurance such as the settle- ment of a wilderness involves. We in imagination see them now, moving along with stout hearts, the pioneer himself driving his team, with ruddy and cheerful countenance, undismaved by all of the difficulties, pri- vations and hardships before him ; his boys following with rifles on their shoulders, or, what was then com- mon, United States muskets or old Queen Anne arms ; a dog and a cow or so and a few sheep or hogs being among the belongings. A coop of chickens was gen- erally to be seen, fastened to the hind end of the wa- gon, and a huge tar bucket hanging beneath ; and not unfrequently the wagon or wagons so crowded with household goods that the wife and daughters were contented to trudge along on foot. We now know prosperous farmers,-old men, a few only remaining- of the many that were seen moving into the country sixty-five years ago in the manner described. Their advents are mingled with our earliest recollections. Well do we remember seeing them making their slow progress-ten miles a day perhaps-over the rough, muddy, corduroy roads of those early days : they and their glorious pioneer wives and sturdy sons and daughters, worn down, almost overcome, with the toils and fatigues of a long journey : sheltered at night either in their covered wagons, or in the humble log house taverns of those days-feeding perhaps on their own scanty stores spread out on an old chest-yet cheerful and happy ; and with that courage which only could have subdued the dense and heavy forests covering the beautiful landscapes which now surround us. There are a few, a very few of those old pioneers left. They lived the best part of their lives in log
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
houses. Their sturdy arms subdued the forests. The howling sheep-stealing wolf and the more-to-be- dreaded panther have disappeared. The log house has given place to the elegant mansion, the forest to the most beautiful farms. These are the legacies they leave to their children. The pioneers have nearly all passed away ; their names are to be found on marble slabs in our churchyards.
Many are the anecdotes that might be related of the early settlers of Ellicott and surrounding towns. There is a wealthy family not far distant from our city, the father of which pawned his rifle at the land office in Mayville in making the first payment on his land. After the proper entries were made Mr. Pea- cock asked the man to take care of the rifle for him, that he might find it convenient to have the firearm and he was willing to lend it to him. The land office books say that the rifle was redeemed and the land promptly paid for.
Mr. Nathan Brown, an old resident of Jamestown, after reading a paper published by us in the Jamestown Journal, sends the following reminiscences of a jour- ney he made to Jamestown when he was a boy-over 60 years ago. We think it will not fail to entertain, and we give it space here.
"Finding one of the reeds bought at Emory Stearns's reed shop sixty years since, brings to mind my first visit to Jamestown and the incidents connected with the trip. At that time Clear Creek and its tribu- taries, where Ellington now stands, were literally swarming with " speckled beauties," and no fish-hooks nearer than Jamestown. I suggested to the boys that if they would furnish the money I would go over and purchase a supply of hooks. They raised twenty-five
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF
cents and decided that my interest was to be one- fourth of the hooks.
In the meantime my father had sheared the lambs and got four pounds of wool, which my mother ex- pected to card by hand and spin to make stockings for the family. Father proposed that I should take the wool and have it carded in Jamestown, and also call at Stearns's and get the two reeds for the looms he had ordered, making my trip for business as well as for pleasure. I was soon ready, as there was not much nonsense or " dudeism " about the Young America of that early day : my outfit consisting of tow pants and shirt made by my mother, also a roundabout with the ample pockets well stocked with Johnnycake for lunch, and a straw hat made by my oldest sister. Thus equipped I started at three o'clock in the morning, taking my dog, Carlo, for campany, and also for pro- tection against wolves or any other wild animals I might happen to meet with. The path lay over the hill through an almost trackless forest, by way of Vermont, then called Bucklin's Corners. I reached Jamestown at 9 a. m., a boy stranger in a strange land, but soon found Daniel Hazeltine's, carding machine, and left my wool. So many others were before me that mine could not be ready before 2 p. m. I next found Stearns's reed shop, and, as he had only one of the reeds ordered, partly finished and could not complete it until three o'clock, I went to take a view of the village and to make my important investment at Prendergast's store on First street. The proprietor, Dr. Jediah Prendergast, waited on me himself, and when I asked for twenty-five cents' worth of fish hooks, wished to know where I came from. On learn- ing that I had walked from Clear Creek he said,
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THE TOWN OF ELLICOTT.
" Twelve miles through the woods to buy fish hooks ! You have more grit than most boys of your age, and ought to have a good many hooks. We sell hooks at a cent apiece, but you shall have them at cost," count- ing out fifty. I thanked him and, turning to leave the store, noticed a number of auger holes through the door about 18 inches from the bottom. On inquiring why those were there he said that some one intended to rob the store, but had been frightened away by sawyer going up to Dr. Hazeltine's spring for water. In five minutes more they would have broken the piece out and entered. This was the first attempt at burglary in Jamestown, and the last for many years.
After viewing the saw mill with its ponderous gang of seventeen saws, I called at the shops for my rolls and reed, and then discovered that my dog Carlo was missing. Not succeeding in finding him, my trip home was much more lonely. I returned by way of Worksburg, stopping at the spring near the grist mill, there to finish my cornbread and enjoy a drink of that refreshing water. I went down to the Cassadaga and followed the path over the hill; but darkness and a severe thunder storm compelled me to make for a light through the trees, and I reached a log cabin just in time to avoid getting my rolls, reed and fish hooks wet. It was one of those pioneer cabins occupied by one of our neighbors, two miles distant from our home. They kindly took me in, gave me a dish of mush and milk, and afterwards brought me a saptrough of water to bathe my feet, blistered from the walk of twenty- two miles, insisting that I should spend the night there, as the storm was so severe. I reluctantly con- sented, knowing that in a cabin not far away there would be much anxiety on my account. But spread-
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