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 15
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When I grew older and had occasion to record, as I have at various times, my birthplace, I was again proud of the fact that I was born at Bath, in old Steuben.
I very early developed a great desire to visit my birthplace. My father, who was a merchant and often went to New York to buy goods, finally brought me East to visit my uncles and aunts and cousins. I think I was only ten years of age when I made this, my first visit. We arrived here in the evening. On the next morning, my father having gone on to New York, I got up bright and early to see what the place was like. The sight that charmed me most was Mossy Bank. To me it was the highest moun- tain in the world. I had never even seen a hill, for I had been reared in Michigan where, in early days, dry places were called mounts. The very day after my arrival, for my especial pleasure, my cousins planned an ex- cursion to the top of Mossy Bank. Well do I remember how hard I struggled to keep up with the rest, sometimes hesitating with fear. Well do I remember the pride and satisfaction I experienced when I looked down on the pleasant valley below me. It was the first time that, from an elevation, I had ever viewed the habitations of man. It did not lessen man's greatness to me, but it increased my awe for the Creator. We spent a most delightful day, until when, on our return, in order to save distance, we were crossing a planted field, we were startled by the shouts of the owner. To say that I was frightened feebly indicates my condition when I saw the man with a dog, and I was told also with a gun, making hastily for us. I didn't stop to see whether he had a gun or not, but I heard the
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dog bark and I started for the river ; I think I led them all, although the youngest of the party. When I reached the river I hardly knew what to do, for I had always lived on the bank of a river that was three-quarters of a mile wide and sixty feet deep ; but the dog was close behind, and I plunged in regardless of consequences. I assure you that I can remember well the satisfaction I felt upon reaching the other side. I think my cousins were not as frightened as I was, and I am now disposed to believe that they were somewhat responsible for my fright. The next day my cousins arranged another tour, and we went on a picnic to the lake near where my cousin, James Lyon, then lived. The boys, on this occasion, brought along a double-barrelled shot gun, which they, after some persua- sion, induced me to shoot. The gun was leveled across a large stump, and I was told that it was aimed at a flock of ducks. I didn't see any ducks, but I was induced to pull the trigger and shoot. From the way that I was kicked over, I believe that an extra large charge was put in for my benefit. I was assured when I regained my feet. that I had killed two ducks.
Each day brought new revelations. I had uncles, aunts and cousins in every direction, boys and girls, and I visited them all. I remember that I fell desperately in love with one of my girl cousins. Although she was much older than I, I was charmed with her beauty and amiability. I staid here about two weeks and had as delightful a time, I think, as ever a boy had in his life. I went home with pleasant recollections of Bath, and they have never been effaced from my memory.
From time to time I have returned to Bath, but I have not kept track of the social and commercial changes that have occurred, yet I know that great changes have taken place here similar to the changes that occur in other places. The surroundings of Bath have changed but little. Mossy Bank looks the same to me that it did when I was ten years old. I pre- sume that the country roads leading into Bath are unchanged and most of the environments are as they were, but I imagine that if some one were to return to Bath to-night, who lived at the time of the anniversary which we are now celebrating, that he would discover great changes, not only in the habits but even in the faces of the people assembled here to-night. To bring to mind the sturdy manhood of the people of that day, and to call up the memories of those who have more recently passed away will well repay for all the labor and expense of this celebration and reunion. From the struggles, the hardships and the sacrifices of the pioneers has come the general intelligence of to-day, and has made the American people the foremost people of the world, the most intelligent and most independent people.
I used to think a few years ago that all depended upon political or- ganizations ; that one party would save the country and that another party would ruin it. A little practical public experience has convinced me
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that that is all wrong ; it is intelligence that controls both or either par- ties. The party that cannot live up to or fulfil the demands of intelligence to-day in the United States must pass out and give way to the party that will.
And as to-night we are the recipients of blessings bestowed on us by those who appreciated the value of an education, so to-day devolves on us a great responsibility for the well-being of those who will follow us.
In conclusion, I desire to express my appreciation of the motives and arduous labors of those who have so successfully managed this reunion. I believe it will reflect great credit upon Bath, and it will be of lasting bene- fit to the young people here, who soon must come up and take the places of the older ones in the city and Nation. It will broaden their minds ; it will give them a higher appreciation of the responsibilities they owe to each other and to their country ; and so Bath will continue to maintain the high rank it has ever held in the great Empire State, in the greatest Na- tion of all civilization.
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BY HON. IRVIN W. NEAR,
History of Kennedyville.
My contribution to this occasion is such facts, circumstances and statements as relate to and are connected with the early settlement, his- tory and progress of that part of the town of Bath, which was embraced in and formed school District No. 3 of this town, at the beginning of and during the early and middle portion of the present century, and par- ticularly the part that was first known as Kennedy's Corners, Kennedy- ville, and later on and now, as Kanona.
School District No. 3 began on the easterly, near what was known as the "Half-Way House," and extended westerly and up the Conhocton River, nearly to the "Eight-Mile Tree" and almost a mile and a half on each side of the river. This territory now lies in the three towns of Avoca, Bath and Wheeler.
The first school house was located at the central point, now known as Kanona, at the confluence of the Five-Mile Creek from the north, and Campbell Creek from the south, with the Conhocton River, which here flows from the north-west, in a south-easterly course, forming three wide, productive and luxuriant valleys, so that at this place of the meeting of the waters was, in location, an attractive place for the early pioneers and tourists, and it has been ever since and now is unsurpassed in that respect.
The first mention of Kanona comes from the memoirs of the Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, a Frenchman, who made a tour of this country in 1795. He says that in that year there was a small settlement at Kennedyville.
At the time of the opening of Williamson's road from Bath to near Tuscarora in Livingston County, in 1793, an inn was kept at this point by one John Mahon. It is said that at the time of the completion of this road, Mahon, who had kept an inn at the mouth of the Five-Mile Creek. located in Sparta.
All of the streams on the northerly side of the Conhocton River. crossed by this road, were designated by the number of miles they were from Bath-as Five-Mile, Ten-Mile, Twelve-Mile Creeks, and so on.
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Bath was then the great central point-the expected future metropolis of Western New York-from which all distances were measured and com- puted ; the proximity of any point to Bath, then, determined its value as a place to locate. I do not know that longitude was ever reckoned from Bath, but presume it was, because all other known measurements began there.
The first real settler at Kanona was Col. Henry Kennedy ; he came in 1800, and purchased the land where the village is now located. Col. Ken- nedy was born in Scotland, in 1765, of Scotch-Irish parentage ; he was the first of the family to settle in America. He first located in Johnstown, in Fulton county, New York, shortly after he attained his majority, doubtless attracted thither by others of his countrymen who, through the aid and in- fluence of Sir William Johnson, had formerly located there, and had founded a rich and prosperous community, and from which the Johnson Greens, who so largely contributed to desolating the Mohawk Valley during the Revolution, were recruited. Kennedy came from Fulton, then Mont- gomery county, to Herkimer county, and from thence to Kanona. He built the first saw-mill, on the site of the ruins of a later mill, near the D. L. & W. R. R. station. He also kept a tavern on the spot where is now located a brick hotel, and from this circumstance the place became known as Kennedy's Corners and Kennedyville. The name of the first clergyman is forgotten, while that of the first to minister to the physical necessities and provider of entertainment survives. It is so in many localities. Is the judgment just ?
Henry Kennedy held a colonel's commission at one time in the State militia. It is asserted that he served in the Revolutionary war ; of this I have not sufficient evidence. He held several local offices, among them that of Justice of the Peace. He had a family composed of the following children : sons-John, Hiero, James and William ; and daughters-Anne, Sarah, Hannah, Cornelia, Susan and Dolly. He was a man of undoubted honesty and integrity, of stern and tyrannical disposition, and in his family rigorous and exacting, enforcing obedience to his mandates with a "Penang lawyer." He died at Kanona, April 26, 1826, aged 61 years, leaving his widow, Anne Kennedy, and the above-named children. John, better known as Colonel John, and of whom more will be said, was born in Her- kimer county, and died in the town of Dansville, in Steuben county, October 8, 1833. William died in 1834 ; Hiero, in 1836 ; James died at an early age. Of the daughters, Anne became the wife of Daniel Raymond, Sarah the wife of Joseph Wheeler, Cornelia the wife of Franklin Glass, Susan the wife of Chauncey Sackett, and Dolly or Dorinda the wife of Bernard Fox ; Hannah never married.
John Kennedy served with distinction in the war of 1812 with Eng- land. He was an Ensign-a rank now known as Second-Lieutenant-in a
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company of drafted men ; this company was on the Niagara frontier ; they volunteered to cross the river and make the attack on Queenstown Heights. The Captain sought shelter in a place of safety ; the First-Lieutenant, John Gillet, was severely wounded ; the company became confused and demora- lized ; Ensign Kennedy with great enthusiasm and intrepidity reorgan- ized his scattering comrades, reformed the column, placed himself at its head and, with other American forces led by Lieut .- Col. Winfield Scott, made a gallant and brilliant assault upon the British and Indians on the Heights, and drove them to the woods. Ensign Kennedy was personally complimented upon the field by Gen. Wadsworth, upon whom the con- mand of the Americans had devolved, for his bravery. It was in the at- tempt to rally his retreating forces, caused by this attack, that the British General Brock fell mortally wounded, perhaps by a bullet from a musket of one of Kennedy's men. British reinforcements coming into action drove the Americans down the bank to the river's edge, but as Kennedy's Captain and others of a like mind, in their discretion, had taken most of the boats to save themselves, a large number of Americans, of whom Ken- nedy was one, were taken prisoners, sent to Halifax and from thence were paroled and sent home for exchange. Before his parole had expired, we find Kennedy, now Capt. Kennedy, in command of a company at Fort Erie, in Canada, in defiance of his parole ; in his patriotic enthusiasm he prominently participated in that brilliant sortie from Fort Erie, which re- sulted in the raising of the siege of that Fort by the British.
At the close of military operations on that frontier, Kennedy returned home, and to peaceful avocations. It is said that Col. Kennedy's parole had not expired at the time of his death-he was never exchanged.
Col. Kennedy was a member of Assembly from Steuben County in 1825, and was sheriff of the county in 1826-29. Col. Kennedy married Flora, a daughter of Maj. Asa Gaylord, of Cold Springs.
Brigham, Elijah and John Hanks settled at Kanona in 1804; Elisha Hanks and Jeremiah Wheeler in 1805. All came from Vermont. Brigham Hanks was a blacksmith ; his first shop stood upon the spot where the brick stores now stand. He was a man of considerable educa- tion. He was the first postmaster, appointed when the office was first created in 1820, during the administration of President James Monroe ; he was also clerk of School District No. 3, and secretary of the various meet- ings of which any record is preserved. He removed to Illinois many years ago and died there. Elisha Hanks settled on the Bradley farm and Elijah and John Hanks and Jeremiah Wheeler located and lived nearly a mile south of the village, up the Campbell Creek valley.
In a letter from Brigham Hanks to his brother Elisha Hanks, then in Vermont, dated August 21, 1805, urging him to come to this locali- ty, after recounting the cheapness of land, its amazing fertility, the
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abundance of crops and the ease with which they could be raised, the plentifulness of game, he added " You, can get good whiskey here, they sell a gallon of it for a bushel of rye." Think of this, ye candidates for " jag cures," with what frugality these pioneers enjoyed a spree! Elisha could not resist these allurements. He died at Kanona, May 14, 1848. Elijah Hanks died at the same place, Sept. 26, 1853. A peculiarity of these Hankses-they each had a family of seven children. One of the daughters of Elisha Hanks became the wife of Jolin Ostrander, of Kanona, another married Job Goff, of Hornellsville. Brigham Hanks, a valued and respected citizen of Wellsville, N. Y., is a son of Elijah Hanks.
Finla McClure, Jr., shortly afterwards settled on the river above Kanona, on what is known as the Snell farm, now in the town of Avoca.
Edward Howell, early in life, and about this time, lived on the farm later occupied by Henry and Alexander Shaver, still later by Ambrose Gray. Here Mr. Howell first undertook to be a farmer, He afterwards moved to Bath, and became one of the learned and honored lawyers of the State.
Col. John Taylor, of Trenton, N. J., came to Bath in 1797, and settled on the farm, on which the "Half-Way House" was built ; a part of the present house was built by him. Col. Taylor was a soldier of the Revolu- tion in the New Jersey line. He served seven years ; he was with Wash- ington during most of the service and was his intimate friend during and after the war. While the patriot army occupied New Jersey, in the dis- mal winter of 1776-77, Washington made the home of Col. Taylor his resting place. Col. Taylor lived to be ninety years old. Of his children, a daughter was married to Dugald Cameron in this Half-Way House. A son, George W. Taylor, named for George Washington, by whom he was held at baptism, located and settled on Five-Mile Creek in District No. 3, nearly a mile above and north of Kennedyville. Here in 1820, he built a large grist-mill, the only one in the vicinity at that time ; this mill did a large business for a number of years. Taylor, about the same time, built and operated a distillery at the same place ; for a long time it did a flour- ishing business and, with the mills, supplied victuals and drink to all the country about. After this grist-mill ceased to be operated, it was taken down and the timbers sold to Mr. W. W. McCay, by whom it was removed and converted into a barn, now standing on the Soldiers' Home farm, on the hill southerly from the principal buildings. Col. Taylor married, for his second wife, the widow of Col. Eleazer Lindley, who was the proprie- tor of the town of Lindley. Mr. Wm. B. Taylor, of Canisteo, is the son of George W. Taylor.
Erastus Glass came about 1806. He built a saw-mill below Kanona, about three-fourths of a mile, on the site now occupied by Baker's Mills. Thomas, better known as "Tommy" Moore, an honest, jolly, good-natured
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Irishman, the son of James Moore, who was born in Ireland and came to this county with George McClure, lived and died on the farm cleared by his father, above Kanona, on the northern side of the river nearly oppo- site to Mr. Howell's early home. A daughter of Thomas Moore married Isaac H. Hill Esq., whose memory is loved and respected by all who knew him. Another daughter, Jane, a kind and noble woman, died a few years since ; like one I have before mentioned. she never married. "Some one had blundered."
In 1830, Clinton Nixon, who was a merchant and trader, built a saw- mill and a tannery in the eastern part of the present village, nearly oppo- site to the late residence of ex-sheriff Oliver Allen.
Jolın Ostrander came about 1812, at an early age ; he was a hotel keep- er, merchant and lawyer ; he was a man of broad and comprehensive views, quick and keen preceptions, of good habits and excellent business ability. He spent the remainder of his life at Kanona and died there in 1865. Four of his five sons volunteered, and did splendid service in the Union army, in the War of the Rebellion. Ostrander had an extensive acquaintance in all the country about, and a great reputation for his skill and success in trying "horse suits" in Justice Court ; his services were in constant demand, for horse-trading was then, more than now, a legitimate business.
The following is told: A man who had the blood of half a dozen different races in his veins-a sort of a polyglot-traded horses and got cheated ; he resorted to the law for redress and started to retain John Ostrander. On his arrival he found that his adversary had secured Ostran- der. Finally he secured the services of John Van Loon, then a rising young lawyer of ability. The cheated horse-trader, upon being teased by the fellows who hung around the taverns, upon his disappointment in ob- taining the lawyer of his first choice, retorted, that "Loon could not open his mouth as wide as 'Strander but he could hop on to the law."
Kanona was the favorite stamping ground for the horse-traders of a generation ago-a class of men who made their living by swapping horses or any thing else-they combined traits of boldness, cunning, shrewdness and general knowledge-
" A smack of Lord Waterford, reckless and rollicky, Swagger of Roderick, heading his clan : The keen penetration of Paddington Pollaky ; Genius of Bismarck, devising a plan ; The spirit strategic of Cæsar or Hannibal, Skill of Sir Garnet in thrashing a cannibal ; The dash of a D'Orsay, divested of quackery ; Narrative powers of Dickens and Thackeray ;
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Victor Emmanuel, peak-hunting Peveril ; Thomas Aquinas and Doctor Scheverell, Tupper and Tennyson, Daniel Defoe, Anthony Trollope, and Mr. Guizot."
I have known one of this guild, to start out, with a spavined, wind- broken, weak-backed horse, harness, old sulky, a silver watch, and poor- ly appareled, to return, after a couple of weeks' raid through the country, with a good pair of horses, harness, a fine top buggy, gold watch, and clothed in broadcloth and fine linen.
Among these traders " Jim " Deyo, "Nub " Barker, "Jo" Rice, "Jim" Covert were expert artists. These nomads, and the horse-law-suits bred and nourished by their skill, have disappeared from this locality.
Samuel W. Burnham, who at an early day, lived on the Campbell Creek road, between the river and Wheeler's, was an intelligent, keen and active man. He had a great reputation as a successful pettifogger, and his services were eagerly sought for by those who were in want of his assistance.
Upon one occasion, before a Justice of the Peace in the then town of Howard, Burnham was engaged on the trial of a law-suit for trover and conversion. He represented the defendant ; Dan H. Davis, of Liberty, a man of fit calibre for Burnham, was for the plaintiff. After wrangling all day and a greater part of the night, varied with an occasional scrap, such as pulling hair and kicking shins, Burnham moved the Court that the action be discontinued, and made a long and ingenious argument in support of his motion. Davis responded with confidence, stating that there was no foundation, right or authority for the motion. The Court, believing what Burnham said was true, and being tired and worn out by the conten- tion of counsel, and not having the ability to comprehend the position of either, granted the motion and discontinued the action on the application of the defendant, wlio at once got out of the county with the property in dispute.
Russell Kellogg, George Dawson, Samuel Fyler, Zera Bradley and Oliver Allen, all of whom are now dead, were active and prominent resi- dents of Kanona, and contributed to its prosperity. Of Oliver Allen more than a passing notice is due ; he was elected sheriff of the county, he then residing at Hornellsville, in 1849. His term was one of great activity, and he discharged the duties of the office with credit. He was truly a leader of men and, in the Canisteo Valley no man was more esteemed or had a larger following. He was possessed of remarkable personal strength and courage, and was always ready for any emergency, regardless of the con- sequences to himself. During his term as sheriff, a great deal of lawless- ness and annoyance prevailed in the towns bordering on Pennsylvania,
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caused by a gang of thieves, who would come into this county, steal horses, cattle, sheep and other property and run them over the state line into the Pennsylvania wilderness. The local officers and Allen's deputies had not succeeded in arresting any of these malefactors. Sheriff Allen resolved to visit the infested districts alone, so, taking several pairs of hand- cutis, he started out, and arriving unsuspected in the locality, he soon got on track of the evil doers. He followed two of them to a house, rapping for admittance. A man came to the door, Allen immediately siezed him, hand-cuffed him to an apple tree by drawing his arms around the tree and putting the handcuffs on his wrists, leaving the prisoner embracing the tree in this manner ; then, with the help of some residents who had been aroused, pursued and captured the second, and shackling them together, he brought them both to Bath and lodged them in jail, remarking that it would "be some time before they would again eat butter on their potatoes."
After the expiration of his term of office as sheriff, he moved to Kanona, purchased a farm just east of the village and lived there for more than ten years. Shortly after the time his office ended, the American or "Know Nothing" Party was formed, and rapidly assumed such magnitude as to threaten the existence of the two great parties-the Whig and Dem- ocratic. The Canisteo Valley was a fertile field for the growth of the new and mysterious party, whose transactions were carried on in lodges to which none but those invested with the pass-word could gain admission.
Allen was appealed to by his old party associates in Hornellsville for help; he went over and made the tour of the valley and, by personal ap- peals to his old acquaintances succeeded in staying the further growth of the new party in that locality. In a short time throughout the Northern States a like result prevailed and upon the demoralization and discontent then prevailing, the Republican party, like a young giant, sprang into be- ing, and in this county such men as Robert Campbell, William M. Hawley and Oliver Allen were the foremost champions of its principles. For a number of years after this, ex-sheriff Allen was prominently connected with the management of the canals of this state. He died in the town of Canisteo about 1866.
About the year 1836, a new class of people emigrated to the locality that I am now considering, and its vicinity; they came from the Mohawk Valley ; their fathers and grandfathers were among the makers of Ameri- ca. They were the associates of, and co-laborers with Philip Schuyler, Peter Gansevoort, Nicholas Herkimer, Douw and Jellees Fonda and Sir William Johnson. They were with Col. Marenus Willett in August, 1777, at Fort Stanwix, when the stars and stripes were then and there for the first time flung to the breeze. This first flag was made by this garrison ; the blue of the Union was from Capt. Swarthout's camlet cloak, the white
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