USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Ellicott > The early history of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, N.Y. > Part 38
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The influence of association and example is uni- versal, and is active either for good or evil, even from the cradle to the grave. That James Prendergast, during the days of his school life, by his bright and studi- ous example, planted in the minds of his especial associ- ates, not only enlightened principles and virtuous habits, but those fruit trees of mental and intellectual knowledge and culture, which will in those not early called away, yield a noble fruitage, to bless the mem- ory of him who, by his virtuous example, planted the seed, we do not doubt. For it was he who awakened their
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perceptions, keenly to the value of thorough mental cultivation. It was he, who in their rambles through the meadows and the forest, first awakened in their hearts a true love of nature. It was he who. lectured them on the glory of the grass, and the splendor in the flowers-on the majestic beauty of the forests and the whispering voices of their leaves-of the beauty and music of nature in all her work ; for of James Prendergast it may be truly said that he could exclaim with Akinside "With what attractive charms this goodly frame
Of nature touches the consenting hearts Of mortal nian. For him the spring Distills her dews, and from the silken gem Its lueid leaves unfolds ; for him the hand
Of Autumn tinges every fertile branch With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn.
Each pas ing hour sheds tribute from her wings:
And still new beauties meet Lis lonely walk, And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the ter ants of the warbling shade A cends. but whenee his bosom can partake Fresh pleasures unreproved "
James Prendergast's only aim was to seek the noblest purposes of his existence; and his labor was to prepare himself to do perfectly whatever duty called him to do. He appears to never wander for a moment from the path he had chosen, nor to have been disturbed by any sickly doubts of the worthi- ness of the objects he was pursuing. His views of life and the part he was to take in it were cheerful and rational, and his mind was filled with perpetual sun- shine. Hisconversations bear testimony to this healthy and happy state of feeling. They were full of the in- spiration of fresh and generous hopes and of proper and modest confidence in his own powers, the bright
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belongings of youth-when the spirits are unbroken by the experiences of life-before disappointments and the repeated visitations of sorrow had taught the sad lessons that the results of human exertions always fall short of its aspirations. These disappointing lessons he did not live long enough to learn in all their sad reality. But he had so lived the short life that had been placed before him, that when suddenly called to leave the fairest of earthly prospects, the most lovely and most assuring views of the future attended him within the shadow which divides the present from the future state of being. He was not unprepared to leave affectionate parents, wealth, and great prospects of honors in a world where every thing appeared so bright and alluring, and go hence to that other world which his faith taught him, was far superior to this.
James Prendergast had many amiable and estim- able qualities which secured the attachment of many friends. Generous to a fault, profuse in his liberality, constant in his friendships, indisposed to all forms of vulgarity, dissipation and prodigality, his friendships were among those who prized a good name. He sel- dom failed to perceive true merit in others, and was always pleased to see it rewarded. He felt keenly the injuries done him by false friends, but so long as they reflected upon him politically, and did not reach to his private character, he suppressed his feelings by a manly control, and treated the deceitful assaults with a manly disdain, which, had he lived longer, would have redounded to his greatest credit, and the placing of these pretended and deceitful friends in the light belonging to them.
His mind was in the best sense original; he never arrayed himself in borrowed plumage. Free from
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anything approaching to eccentricity, he thought for himself, and in all cases formed his own conclu- sions. His perceptive powers were quick, and the resources of his well-stored mind were ready and producible whenever occasion required. Although he possessed a great aptitude and talent for literary composition, yet the intellectual exercise in which he most delighted was conversation. This was probably the field in which he exhibited most fully his fine powers and the extent and versatility of his learning, with more satisfaction to himself than in any other .. And it must be confessed, that for those who are capa- ble of it, the pleasure of animated, intellectual conver- sation, is hardly inferior to the high excitement of public speaking, and very far beyond the solitary de- lights of the pen.
Sincere and truth loving, he delighted in earnest discussion, being equally willing to learn or instruct. He enjoyed wit and humor, and had a strong sense of the ludicrous. In all cases requiring the sifting power of the reasoning faculties and the decision of the judg- ment, he always investigated with unusual caution, discussed calmly and carefully, weighed accurately, and after a thorough dissection of the whole matter, came to a decision ;- and we are yet to learn the case in which that decision was wrong. His judgments on all subjects came from the best efforts of his reasoning powers brought to bear upon all the facts of the case. His reasoning was always from cause to effect, and he carefully avoided all the errors which the comparative method involved.
James Prendergast inherited one family trait in all its perfectness ;- he was singularly free from envy and malice, and a disposition too frequently met with,
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to disparage or belittle the acquirements of others. It gave him the greatest pleasure to have one of his friends, or any one else, say a fine thing, or do a good deed which raised them in the estimation of others. It always delighted him to have his friends do well, upon all occasions and under all circumstances.
The character of James Prendergast was remark- able for its symmetry, the equal development of all the faculties, and for complete harmony between the in- tellectual powers and moral feelings. The portraits of him give a fair idea of his features, but there is some- thing in the expression when the face is lit up by thought which no portrait can adequately give, and is certainly wanting in his. If we are permitted to speak of the personal appearance of one who has departed, we can first say that he was an unusually handsome man. His face grew finer as he advanced in life, and his countenance never assumed a nobler aspect nor had more real beauty in it, than during the last year of his life. It was also easy to trace there marks of thought, of care, and of studiousness, accompanied, we may say, by signs of a soul at peace with itself and mingled, we will not say with sadness, but certainly with pen- siveness, bred, perhaps, from much pondering upon the uncertainty of human affairs, and the serious aspects of this life. His frank, generous, yet somewhat pen- sive countenance, limned none of those fatal lines which indicate craft and insincerity, greed or sensual- ity, but all was clear, open, pure minded and honest. Towards the close of his life perhaps his countenance grew more and more staid, earnest and thoughtful, yet when he smiled every lineament beamed with pleas-
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ure, and there was a pleasant sound and a heartiness about his laugh which will not soon be forgotten by those who were wont to hear it.
In private life he was a model of every domestic virtue and grace. Faithful and deferential to his father-loving and affectionate to his mother-kind and unostentatious to the servants, he was the delight of the domestic hearth which he so much loved, and where all, to the lowest menial loved and respected him. He was eminently domestic in his tastes, social in his feelings, averse to high conviviality, and at all times urbane and modest in his demeanor. His amia- bility was one of his most distinguishing traits. And among all these high, generous, noble characteristics of James Prendergast-high above all-was the filial deference and respect, love and devotion he always displayed for his father and his mother.
From childhood up to the last days of his life, he was remarkable for the great desire he had for acquir- ing knowledge. His mind was avaricious of the wealth of intellectual acquirements, so much so that during his early school boy days, although he acquired knowledge with rapidity, the hours he was permitted to study were too short to meet his views. His facul- ties were vigorous, and he never allowed listlessness to creep over him so long as a book remained within his reach. His books were his joy and his pride; in them he found solace and entertainment, nutriment and in- struction. His literary tastes were keen and discrim- inating, so that he enjoyed the master pieces of hu- man genius with a full relish, and a nice discernment of their finer qualities. From boyhood up, the ad- vantages offered him fully equaled his desire for
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knowledge. From first to last he had the advantages of the best schools and tutors in the United States, and no higher encomiums touching not only zeal and ability, but of great acquirements and noble conduct could be given than those accorded to him by President Woolsey of Yale, and by Professor Dwight of Columbia College. Prof. Dwight especially compliments him for scholarship and attainments of the highest order.
Returning to Jamestown he founded the law firm of Green, Prendergast & Benedict-all of them sons of the early settlers. This firm was broken by his death.
His short political career is spoken of by Coleman E. Bishop in Memorials as follows: "James Prender- gast's political career brought him only honor. He entered upon it after much deliberation ; with a full comprehension of the questionable means by which alone success is usually considered possible in public life, and with an equally full determination to either succeed without resort to those means, or to honorably fail." He entered upon the campaign with the motto " Success with clean hands, or failure." In 1878 he was elected to the Assembly by an overwhelming ma- jority. " The next year he failed of a renomination for reasons, if it were proper here to recount them, would redound to his honor more highly than any other fact in his political career. His course in the Legislature was of that character to attract attention by its uprightness." He could neither be drove or bought; he failed of a re-election because he could not succeed with clean hands. He would not stoop to conquer, but proudly preserved his integrity and the fair name he bore. His friends viewed in this defeat the proudest triumph of his career.
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The last and noblest of a noble race, he has de- parted from us.
" The night dew that falls, though in silence it weeps,
Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps; And the tear that we shed though in secret it rolls,
Shall keep his memory green in our souls."
And what more appropriate epitaph to inscribe on the mausoleum in Lake View Cemetery, which con- tains his ashes-than the beautiful lines written by Mrs. Hemans, and inscribed on her own tomb in St Anns Church, Dublin.
" Calm on the bosom of thy God, Fair Spirit ! rest thee now ! E'en while with us thy footsteps trod, His seal was on thy brow. Dust to the narrow home beneath ! Soul to its place on high !
They who have seen thy look in death, No more may fear to die."
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CONCLUSION.
We have occasionally heard the statement, that the early settlers of the town of Ellicott, and partic- ularly of the Village of Jamestown, were a rough, igno- rant and intemperate set of people. This we deny, in the most absolute and positive manner ; and right here, will show that our assertion is correct. There
are a few truthful and well meaning people, who, nevertheless, seem to think that all morals, all temper- ance, and the largest portion of the religion in the country, started into existence soon after they became citizens of Jamestown; that they set the ball in motion that knocked over a great portion of the ignorance and early immorality, and introduced, not only the arts and sciences and civilized society, but the Christian religion, pure and undefiled, into the place. It is not the intention of the persons to whom we refer to mis- represent, but a more erroneous and mistaken idea could not be entertained.
It has been our contention in this volume, that the early settlers of the town of Ellicott, were for the most part, the energetic, educated young men of the best families of New England and of Eastern New York. They were not only men of energy and persc-
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verance, but of good morals, and had enjoyed the best advantages the country offered for education. The record of their names and of their lives proves our assertion correct. At the time this country was set- tled, the sons of New England, and especially the edu- cated ones, were looking to Western New York and to the Western Reserve of Ohio, for their future homes. Knowing that these then wilderness countries possessed a soil far superior to that on which their fathers lived, and that emigration must soon people them with a large and industrious population, they emigrated to, and commenced life in these wildernesses. They came first; and by herculean efforts established the church, the school house and the printing press, before the less energetic, the less worthy andless educated had in numbers, left the places of their birth, to seek new homes in the El Dorado of the west. When they came, they found communities and laws to restrain them, and which have continued to restrain them ever since. These early settlers, for the most part, came west in small and select companies ; each to some especial locality, and their friends and relatives followed, and to the same localities. The first settlers at the rapids were largely from Wardsboro, Windham Co., Vt., and from Rensselaer Co. in this state.
We take Jamestown, instead of the town of Elli- cott, as the field of our investigation ;- time, the year 1822. We have divided the then inhabitants into three classes. (1) The moral and educated; (2) the moral; and (3) the immoral. For the first class we write down the following names: James Prendergast, Horatio Dix, Wm. Forbes, Solomon Jones, Ellick Jones, N. Dolloff, Laban, Abner, and Daniel Hazeltine, Silas and Jehial Tiffany, E. T. Foote, Sam'l. A. Brown,
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Thos. W. and C. R. Harvey, Wm. Hall, Wm. and John C. Breed, Silas Shearman, William Knight, Royal and Eber Keyes, Harmis Willard, Joseph Waite, Samuel Barrett, Wilfred Barker, Phineas Stevens, Salmon Grout, Rufus Pier, Elmer Freeman, Jesse Smith, Hor- ace Allen, Scott Sayles, Hiram Kinney, R. F. Fenton, N. W. Harrington, Samuel B. Winsor, Jacob and Wm. H. Fenton, Phineas Palmiter, Darius Dexter, Ezbai Kidder, J. E. Budlong, Sheldon Smith, Edward Work. For class two we record seven names ; for class three we record five names; these not including sawyers on the mills, whose names we cannot remember ; mostly transient men. A number of men whose names we do remember, workers on the mills, should be placed in class two. In truth Old Argue, whom we have placed at the head of class three, and poor John Blow- ers, would be rather lonesome, if we did not bring a few Justices and farmers from out of town, and a good file of sawyers and raftmen and boatmen to make a re- spectable company-in numbers .*
The conveniences in those early days for being moral and religious were not extensive or first class, but such as they had were well patronized. At least two-thirds of the people of Jamestown, on Sunday, both in the forenoon and in the afternoon, went regu- larly to the Old Academy to hear either Abner Hazel- tine, Thomas W. Harvey, or Samuel A. Brown read a sermon, selected from the National Preacher, hear the Harveys, Jessie Smith, Harmis Willard, the + Jones girls and the Dix girls and others, sing, and listen to Deacon Deland's long prayers. The idea that there was neither morals or religion in Jamestown
* See pages 51, 217, 222.
+ Daughters of Solomon Jones and Horatio Dix.
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until some ten years after, is not true. In fact, there was more of each, according to numbers, than at any period since ; and it was the genuine old orthodox sort, too ! In those primitive days, boys had to stay in doors from Saturday night until Monday morning, and read their testaments or a tract; they had no story Sunday School books in those days. We well remem- ber two tracts that came nearest to it,-"The Dairy- man's Daughter," and the "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," and they were literally worn out by constant reading. It was hard work for boys to be good in those times; Sunday was a long, tedious day. Even in driving the cows to pasture on Sunday morn- ing, the precise time necessary in which to go and come was given, and if the time was exceeded a flog- ging might be expected on Monday morning-it was considered too much like work to undertake to flog a stout, lusty Rapids boy on Sunday. Those who say the fathers did not keep Sunday are mistaken. The period of which we speak is within our own remem- brance, and we know.
We felt that we could not conclude this volume without correcting this gross slander on the good name of our fathers. If the sons were one-half as moral and good as they were, Jamestown would be a far better place to-day than it is. Nobler men never settled a new country than those who subdued the wilderness at the rapids, and laid the foundations of all the bless- ings, social, civil and religious, which we, their child- ren and successors, enjoy.
Our allotted task is finished-our wanderings through the few streets of Jamestown, and along the few crooked, muddy roads leading therefrom, in the
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long ago, have come to an end. We have enjoyed many of our visits with the busy men who were once the active inhabitants, but who died long ago, and are now almost forgotten. Our greatest regret is, that we could not use two or three hundred more pages in the fulfillment of our task-we could have drawn our pictures clearer and plainer-but this was not to be thought of. This volume is already twice as large as our friends expected it would be, and forbade the fur- ther extension. We have labored to make the " Early History of the Town of Ellicott"-which many friends said it was our duty to write-and of which, for the most part, there was no record, worthy of their ac- ceptance. We believe that what we have written is truthful, and our greatest desire and care has been to make it so. We hope the method we have pursued in accomplishing our labor will not meet the disapproba- tion of those who so urgently urged us to undertake a task, which at the time was so repugnant to our feel- ings. We have mingled our remembrances of persons with anecdotes and happenings connected with them -the laughable with the sorrowful, the trifling and the vain, with serious reflections on the past and on the future ;- a salmagundi ;- perhaps an ollapodrida; from which the fastidious modern reader may select morsels agreeable to his peculiar taste, and reject those not suited to his delicate digestion.
For a year we have lived in the past. Daily we have walked the streets of Jamestown as they were sixty years ago, and before. We have daily met thereon our fathers, and have followed them into their various places of business, and at times found them so busily engaged with the affairs of time and earthly pursuits, that they could not give us a few moments in which
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to talk over the affairs of the town,and the latest news from those then, far off localities, Chadwick's Bay, (Dunkirk) Pomfret Four Corners, (Fredonia) and the Cross Roads, (Westfield), and the last news from Buf- falo about Clinton's ditch. Most truly we have lived in the long ago, in the which there were no grades or divisions in society-in the which the rich and the poor, the high and the low, lived together and associ- ated as equals ;- in the which there were no locks on the doors, neither was it necessary, for it was rare that any overt act was committed. Those days prepared for the present. But the living of those early days over again has not been an altogether disagreeable task. The most disagreeable part has been that those good old times can never again return, and it has led us to pass our own life in review, to live our own life over again, and to mark its errors. Solemn and sad at times has been the retrospect. As we have passed along through the years that are back of us, full of voices eloquent and pathetic; we have stood over the grave of many an early dream. We have eaten and slept with disappointment. We have watched by the couch of many a hope and seen it fail and die. We have buried many a bright expectation, and laid the memorial wreath over many a joy. Withered® garlands, broken rings, broken vases, once filled with flowers, on every side have strewn the pathway.
By a wearying, unwelcome effort we have called back from the musty caves of memory, friends who passed away years ago. We remembered them as active and prominent in the affairs of life ; suffering its griefs, enjoying its pleasures ; and we mourned when they were called away. At times it has been a disagreeable labor for us to recall them, as graven on
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the memory, and sit down with them for one short hour and retrace those pleasant times now-gone ! We hurry through our task, dismiss the shadows from our thoughts, and close the book of memory against them.
And thus it has been generation after generation for thousands of years. Each had their day of active life, their cups filled to the brim with the world's pleasures and its pains; they passed away like the vapor, while the world wore the same aspect of beauty as now, and has worn during all the ages of earth's human occupancy.
The heavens will be as bright over our graves, as now around our pathways ; the world will offer the same bright attractions for those now unborn as it has for us. In a much shorter time than that we have been reviewing, all of this will have happened ; to many of us even the coming year will have wrought the great change which releases from all earthly affairs. The throbbing heart will have been stilled and at rest, the funeral train will have passed by, and the tearful mourners again busy on the streets. For a short time they will think of us, and occasion- ally speak of us, but the affairs of life will creep in, and speedily we will be forgotten. An occasional,
momentary remembrance is quickly thrust from the mind-as an unwelcome intruder-and ere long all thought of us will have passed away forever. Days will continue to move on, and laughter and song will be heard in the rooms where we died; the streets will continue to be filled with busy men, the assemblages of the joyful and the pleasure seeking as large as they are now. It always has been, as it always will con- tinue to be, the fate of the living, to die and of the
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dead to be forgotten. Thus, most feelingly does Henry Kirke White sing to us of this passing away :
" Yes, 'twill be over soon. This sickly dream Of life will banish from my feverish brain ; And death my wearied spirit will redeem From this wild region of unvaried pain. Yon brook will glide as softly as before, -- Yon landscape smile,-yon golden harvests grow,- Yon sprightly lark on mounting wing will soar When Henry's name is heard no more below.
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God of the just,-thou gavest the bitter cup ; I bow to thy behest, and drink it up."
THE END.
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