The official records of the centennial celebration, Bath, Steuben County, New York, June 4, 6, and 7, 1893, Part 10

Author: Hull, Nora. 4n
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Bath, N.Y. : Press of the Courier Co.
Number of Pages: 302

USA > New York > Steuben County > Bath > The official records of the centennial celebration, Bath, Steuben County, New York, June 4, 6, and 7, 1893 > Part 10

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G. H. McMaster, in his " History of Steuben County " (published in 1853), says : "Captain Williamson was a man of talent, hope, energy and ver- satility, generous, brave of spirit, swift and impetuous of action, of un- questionable discretion in business, a lover of sport and excitement, and well calculated by his temperament and genius to lead the proposed enterprise."

Colonel Williamson had two brothers, John Hope, who was born September 5, 1755, and died December 4, 1796, and David, who was also a

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THE CENTENNIAL OF BATH.

Captain in his Majesty's service, and became Lord Balgray. The Colonel's wife died at Geneva, N. Y., August 31, 1824. The children born to them were, (1), Christian, born November 1, 1786, died at Bath, September 27, 1793 ; (2), Ann, born about 1792, married D. S. Buchanan, and died after 1826 ; (3), Charles Alexander, born November 12, 1794, died May 14, 1849. Charles A., in 1825, married a Miss Clark, of New York, and resided for a time in Geneva, N. Y., and then removed to Scotland. He had several children. His eldest son, David Robertson Williamson, Esq., was born in Geneva, February 13, 1830, and now lives at Crieff, Scotland, where he occupies the Robertson estate, containing fifty square miles of land.

HISTORICAL ADDRESS.

BY ANSEL J. MCCALL, ESQ.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- A century has closed since the settlement of our town and village. We have assembled to-day to commemorate the event and pay our homage to the memory of the noble pioneers from whose toils and privations we have derived so fair a heritage. For one who had witnessed them, to narrate these interesting occurrences in their order from the beginning would be an easy task. But to gather from such meagre materials as stray newspapers, old account books, musty letters, moss-covered tombstones and vague traditions the history of a town and that of its denizens for three generations is no trifling labor. To con- dense and collate even the events that are notable and present them in an address of reasonable length is also an arduous and delicate undertaking. You will, therefore, pardon me for any short-coming in the chronicles which I have endeavored to present in as simple and truthful manner as possible.

The settlement of our village came not about in the ordinary way, was not the work of chance, but the result of a fixed and definite purpose. A brief review of the transactions which led to it seems necessary to be given.

It is well known that the colonies of North America derived their political existence from Royal Charters with grants of territory of uncer- tain extent and indefinite boundaries, sometimes overlapping and cover- ing the same domain. There had been many and serious controversies between them about their respective rights, threatening to result in open hostilities. The Revolutionary War temporarily composed these sisterly quarrels, but as soon as peace was declared, their independence established and measures taken for a more perfect union, these differences loomed up again. It was insisted that the glorious result was due to the joint efforts of the whole confederation, and that, as a consequence, the unoccupied and disputed territory should become the property of the National Gov- ernment, to be disposed of for their joint benefit.

May 27, 1784, Massachusetts presented a petition to Congress setting forth her claim to land embraced within the bounds of the State of New York, and asking for the appointment of commissioners to adjust the dif- ference ; but it resulted in nothing. In 1786, the legislatures of New York

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and Massachusetts respectively provided for the appointment of commis- sioners to compromise the dispute. They met at Hartford in November of that year, and on the 16th of December, executed a compromise agree- ment embracing mutual cessions, grants, releases and provisions, whereby all interfering claims and controversies between said States, as well in respect of jurisdiction as of property, were finally settled and extinguished, and peace and harmony established between them on the most solid foun- dation.

By the settlement thus effected, New York retained the right of gov- ernment, sovereignty and jurisdiction over all the lands in dispute, and to Massachusetts was ceded the rights of soil or preemption of the soil from the sole occupants, the Seneca Indians, of 240,000 acres between the Owego and Chenango Rivers, commonly known as the Boston ten townships, and also of all the lands in New York west of a line beginning at the 82d mile- stone on the north boundary of Pennsylvania (now the south-east corner of Steuben county), and running on a meridian line due north to Lake Ontario, excepting one mile in width on the Niagara River. If you will stop and consider its situation, its soil, its climate and its products, you will agree that it is the fairest portion of the earth that the sun shines upon. It was a noble and generous act on the part of New York to agree to this cession. Without a doubt, she could have successfully resisted the claim ; but when such patriots as Clinton, Livingston, Yates and Benson advised the compromise for the sake of peace and harmony, we know that it was wise to do so.

Notwithstanding the bestowal of so munificent a gift, without an ade- quate consideration, Dutch skill and Scotch thrift made New York the Empire State of the Union. For her generosity attracted to her domain the best blood of Massachusetts, so that whatever the latter State gained in money she lost in men. It is men that make a State. Massachusetts saw in these lands only a means of liquidating the heavy indebtedness which oppressed her. Having quickly disposed of the ten townships to a Boston company, on the 1st day of April, 1788, she contracted to sell to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps her rights in the residue of the territory for £300,000, Massachusetts currency, payable in three equal annual install- inents, with interest, in consolidated securities of her State. These obli- gations at that time were only worth 20 per cent. of their face value, so the actual price was only £60,000, or $200,000-a small sum for nearly six millions of acres of land.

Phelps and Gorham at once opened negotiations with the Seneca In- dians, and at a council held at Buffalo Creek, a treaty was concluded on the 8th of July, 1788, by which they obtained title to the eastern portion of the tract, estimated to contain 2,200,000 acres, agreeing to pay therefor five thousand dollars in hand, and an annuity of five hundred dollars.

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THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE,

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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.

This portion was bounded on the north by Lake Ontario ; on the east by the preemption line, so-called ; on the south by Pennsylvania, and on the west by the following boundary : Running along a meridian line from the Pennsylvania line to the confluence of the Canascraga with the Genesee River, thence northerly along said river to a point two miles north of Can- awagus village (near Avon) ; thence west twelve miles ; thence northerly, and twelve miles from the Genesee River to Lake Ontario. This territory became known as the " Genesee Tract," and included what is now Steuben county. Phelps and Gorham immediately caused the same to be surveyed into ranges of townships six miles square. This was the commencement of a system of surveys which has been adopted by the Government in all the western states and territories. The surveyor who devised this most simple and admirable plan is not known.

Phelps and Gorham opened an office in Canandaigua, and commenced the sale of the townships thus surveyed. The distance of these lands from the inhabited districts and the difficulty of reaching them for the want of feasible highways and water communication, necessarily retarded the sales, and in consequence of a rise in the value of the securities in which payment was to be made, the proprietors found themselves unable to keep their engagements. In their embarrassment they applied for aid to Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary financier, who purchased from them the unsold lands, except two townships reserved by them, and the pre- emptive right in the western portion, and assumed their obligations. For the nominal consideration of five dollars, on November 18, 1790, they exe- cuted a conveyance to Morris of such lands. Morris forthwith directed his agent in London to offer these lands for sale. In a short time a con- tract of sale of the lands ceded by the Indians was made with an English syndicate, consisting of William Pulteney, a capitalist, William Hornby, late Governor of Bombay, and Patrick Colquhoun, an advocate of Glas- gow, for the sum of $333,333.33. Pulteney's interest was nine-twelfths ; Hornby's two-twelfths, and Colquhoun's one-twelfth.

At this time aliens could not legally hold title to land in the State of New York. It was, therefore, necessary that the syndicate should select a person who could take the title and convey such lands as they deemed it advisable to sell. Captain Charles Williamson was chosen-a most fortu- nate selection. [The data of the foregoing abstract of title is gleaned from the papers of George S. Conover and Howard L. Osgood, well-known local historians.]

Provided with the requisite authority from his principals to carry out the purposes of his appointment, in December, 1791, he sailed for Norfolk, Va., accompanied by his family and several reliable young Scotchmen as assistants. Upon his arrival he proceeded at once to Philadelphia to meet Robert Morris. On the 9th of January, 1792, he was duly naturalized by

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Phelps and Gorham opened an office in Canandaigua, and commenced the sale of the townships thus surveyed. The distance of these lands from the inhabited districts and the difficulty of reaching them for the want of feasible highways and water communication, necessarily retarded the sales, and in consequence of a rise in the value of the securities in which payment was to be made, the proprietors found themselves unable to keep their engagements. In their embarrassment they applied for aid to Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary financier, who purchased from them the unsold lands, except two townships reserved by them, and the pre- emptive right in the western portion, and assumed their obligations. For the nominal consideration of five dollars, on November 18, 1790, they exe- cuted a conveyance to Morris of such lands. Morris forthwith directed his agent in London to offer these lands for sale. In a short time a con- tract of sale of the lands ceded by the Indians was made with an English syndicate, consisting of William Pulteney, a capitalist, William Hornby, late Governor of Bombay, and Patrick Colquhoun, an advocate of Glas- gow, for the sum of $333,333.33. Pulteney's interest was nine-twelfthis ; Hornby's two-twelfths, and Colquhoun's one-twelfth.

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THE CENTENNIAL OF BATH.

the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and became a citizen of the United States. There being no direct road leading from Philadelphia to the Gene- see country, he proceeded, by way of New York and Albany, to make an examination of the purchase before completing the contract, and left Albany on the 15th of February for the Genesee. He confined his explora- tions to the region of the Lakes and the Genesee River. He was charmed with the country and satisfied of its value. He determined to locate his headquarters on the Genesee River at the mouth of the Canaseraga. Many years of cultivation by the Indians had prepared these broad and rich river bottoms for the white settler. Captain Williamson returned to Phila- delphia, and on the 11th of April, 1792, received from Morris a deed of the tract in pursuance of the agreement.

Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey were well populated and more contiguous to his purchase than New England ; he saw the necessity of opening a more direct communication to the Genesee from those States. He moved his family to Northumberland, a frontier town at the junction of the north and west branches of the Susquehanna. On the 3d of June, with a small party of surveyors and woodsmen, he set out to explore a route to the Genesee River. He proceeded with his party up the west branch to the mouth of the Lycoming, now the site of the city of Will- iamsport, and up that stream to the mouth of Trout Run, thence up that stream to its source ; then taking a northerly course, crossing Laurel Hill to the headwaters of the Tioga River, he came down that stream to its junction with the Conhocton at Painted Post. The party followed up the Conhocton to the head of Springwater Valley, about six miles south of Hemlock Lake, and thence made their way over the hills to the inlet of Conesus Lake ; crossing the valley and continuing westward along the southerly base of Groveland Hill, they pursued their course down the Can- aseraga to its junction with the Genesee, the point selected for a settle- ment, and given the name Williamsburg. Captain Williamson was satis- fied that a good highway was practicable by this route-the distance being less than one hundred and seventy miles and shorter by one hundred than any other from the west branch of the Susquehanna.

The exploration of this route led him to change his plans. He dis- covered that the south-east portion of the tract was rough and hilly, much of it timbered with pitch-pine and scrub-oaks, and by no means to be com- pared with the rich bottoms of the Genesee or the smooth slopes surround- ing the Lakes. It was at once apparent to him that if he put upon the market the best lands first, the poor and broken lands would remain on his hands unsold for a long time. He also saw that this forbidding part of the country had some advantages ; it was nearer the southern settle- ments, more healthful and abounded in purer streams ; so he resolved to make his headquarters and chief settlement in their midst, saying, " As

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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.

nature has done so much for the northern plains, I will do something for the southern mountains."

As he proceeded through the valley of the Conhocton, he was struck with the beauty of the intersection made by a broad valley extending north to Lake Keuka ; the Senecas had given it the name of Dona-ta-gwen- da (an opening within an opening). As it was near the centre of the south- ern part of the tract and at the head of navigation on the Conhocton River, with its abundant water power, he determined to locate there his chief town and the headquarters for the sale of his lands. The site bore a striking resemblance to that beautiful valley in England where the Avon winds gracefully around the base of a hill and encircles a charming plateau upon which has stood for centuries the ancient city of Bath-the seat of the Pulteney family. This fact led him to adopt the name for his embryo forest city. It was, also, a delicate compliment to the chief proprietor of the territory, his patron.

Captain Williamson made application to the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania for aid in opening the part of the road in that State along the line he had surveyed ; but that Commonwealth refused to grant any assistance ; and he was lucky in getting even permission to build it at his own expense. The Captain was a man of action, and resolved to do it himself. He employed a corps of stout Pennsylvania woodsmen early in the fall and commenced the work vith vigor. Hammond & Brown had charge of his English hands and Benjamin Patterson, of the German con- tingent-a band of a hundred or more scalawags picked up in the German slums by one Berezy, who had induced Patrick Colquhoun to agree to fur- nish them farms on the Genesee River. Instead of being a help in the work they proved an incumbrance, and in addition caused Williamson a world of trouble. Early in November, about thirty miles of it, sufficiently wide for wagons, had been opened, and by the last of December the work- ing party had completed it to Dansville, Livingston county. By the fol- lowing August it was completed to Williamsburg. It was a wonderful undertaking for a single individual, independent of State aid, to push a highway through a wilderness without an inhabitant to furnish encour- agement and labor, and devoid of food and the materials of construction. It has ever since been known as the Williamson Road, and was subsequent- ly adopted as the post route.

The great road having been finished as far as the point selected for the new town, in March, 1793, as soon as navigation was opened, Captain Will- iamson organized a party of thirty woodsmen, surveyors and settlers, to proceed at once to clear the ground and lay the foundations of his new town and settlement on the site previously selected by him. He placed the same in charge of his faithful henchman, Charles Cameron, who pushed out with the party in two Durham boats-which may be called the May

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Flower and Speadwell -- laden with tools, provisions and necessaries, and made his way up the north branch to Tioga Point. These boats carry from five to eight tons, and are poled up the stream. or where there is a strong current or rift are cordelled, or " warped," up by the passengers and crew by means of long ropes. From the Point the navigation was more diffi- cult ; so Mr. Cameron left there one of the boats, with much of the freight, in charge of a few men, and proceeded with the other up the Chemung and Conhocton, and on April 15, made a safe landing on the banks of the latter stream at Bath, near the present location of the Delaware & Lacka- wanna depot, a little more than thirty rods from Pulteney Square.

Let us for a moment contemplate the scene here presented to these bold pioneers, whose mission it was to prepare homes for themselves and build a city. The broad valley was covered with a dark and dense forest of oak and pine ; there was not a break in any direction, save the narrow opening cut out for the great road on the ridge, now the line of Morris street. The hilltops were crowned with magnificent white pines, dark and sombre, adding at least a hundred feet to their apparent elevation. The work before them would have appalled less adventurous spirits. But they were made of sterner stuff, and fell to with a will to accomplish their pur- pose. The resounding blows of the axemen, the crash of falling timber, and the crackling of burning brush, joined with the cries of the master builders, so frightened the denizens of the forest that they betook them- selves to South Hill ; even the terrible rattlers sought their holes. When night came on and the camp-fires were blazing dimly, they tell us a pack of wolves sent up the most unearthly howls ; moping owls from every tree- top answered, " Whoo-Whoo !" while the ill-boding ravens from their high perches croaked dismally their disapproval of the invasion of their domain. All were unheeded and the work went on. The wolf, the raven and the owl have disappeared. The forest of pines has vanished. The crowning glory of the hill-tops is gone. Rich farms, cottages, villas and churches have taken their places. All is changed save that the gentle slopes to the north and west present the same general contour, the grand old South Hill, now partly bald and bare, still overlooks the valley, and the same silver stream flows at its base on its winding way to the Susque- hanna and the sea.

The first comers were not romancers, but stern workers who braced themselves for the toils and privations before them. Thomas Rees, Jr., the surveyor, with his corps of assistants, commenced at once to plot the vil- lage, locate the streets and squares, and number the lots, while Cameron and his helpers, after clearing the ground and making rustic cabins in which to shelter themselves, proceeded to erect a log building on the south side of Pulteney Square, of sufficient capacity for the accommodation of Captain Williamson's family and the transaction of his official business.

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On the north side of Morris street, about twenty rods west of the Square, they next erected a log structure for John Metcalf's hostelry. James Henderson, the mill-wright, sought out a mill site on the Conhocton River, now owned by John Baker and occupied by his flour-mill, and with his crew commenced building a saw-mill to furnish boards for floors, doors and roofs for the new land office, hotel and other structures being put up. It was the first saw-mill in the town, and was completed on the 25th of August. These were stirring times. Every man was working with a will. The axes of scores of choppers resounded in unison, and the boom of the falling pines echoed from mountain to hill. The shouts of the ox-drivers and the " heave-yo" of the house builders made merry music. Captain Williamson in a few days was on the ground in person, superintending operations and cheering the faint-hearted by his presence and stirring words. All was life and activity where he showed himself.

It would seem, from a memorandum in Captain Williamson's account book, that his family arrived in Bath from Northumberland about the 10th day of July, and were duly installed in the log palace prepared for them. Some other families occupied rude cabins in the neighborhood. James Rees, of Philadelphia, had been placed in charge as chief clerk in the land office, and Metcalf's grand hotel had flung its gay banners to the breeze, and there nightly gathered roystering woodsmen to recount their labors and forget their toils in deep potations. Even then whiskey was plenty ; but their fare was coarse. The same account book shows that the chief supplies purchased were pork, flour and corn meal. True, there was an abundance of game in the forest and fish in the river, but the workmen were too busy to take them. Charles Cameron, in 1848, in referring to his expedition, states, among other things, " We suffered from hunger and sickness a great deal. I am now the only survivor of those merry Scotch and Irish boys who used to be so happy together." Turner, in his history of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, adds, "These pioneers had a distinct view of the elephant. Provisions failed and they were at one time three days without food ; as they cleared away the forest, the fever and ague, as it was wont to do, walked into the opening, and the new-comers were soon freezing, shaking and then burning with fever in their hastily constructed cabins."

CAMERON'S PARTY.

It is greatly to be regretted that Mr. Cameron did not give us the names of his associates and something of their personal history. Old letters and account books render it quite certain that the following named persons were of the party, viz : Andrew Smith (known as " Muckle Andrew," from his size and strength), the grandfather of John L. Smith, now occupying

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The official records of the centennial celebration, Bath, Steuben County, New York, June 4, 6, and 7, 1893, Part 10

Author: Hull, Nora. 4n Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Bath, N.Y. : Press of the Courier Co. Number of Pages: 302

Author: Hull, Nora. 4n
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Bath, N.Y. : Press of the Courier Co.
Number of Pages: 302