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 17
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That others thought I was a young man when I first came here is suf- ficiently evident as I tell you that, with a Byron collar and a ribbon neck- tie, I was often mistaken for one. On a certain occasion, going rapidly, as I usually walked, I came to the turn to cross the Davenport bridge. A teamster driving fast from the opposite direction, reined in his horses with a loud " Whoa !" and shouted, " Boy, can you tell me which of these roads I shall take to go to Cooktown?" "Yes, sir ; that is the way." As I rushed on and he drove away, I had the impression, " Well, I must be a boy, as others see me."
The first marriage at which I officiated was in the Dudley settlement, at Mr. Peter Hunter's dwelling, when Mr. Hiram T. Baker, of Warren, Pa., was married to Miss Mary A. Hunter. I was put to the blush on that occasion. There was a pier glass on one side of the room, before which the couple stood. Being a little shy of each other, they slipped apart somewhat and left me watching myself in the glass to see how I looked talking. That was an embarrassing introduction to the marriage service in which I pronounced them man and wife under difficulties. The last marriage service I performed, just before coming here, numbered 1,598 couples which I have united in wedlock. It is only necessary to add that I have passed being afraid of pier glasses or anything else in that direction.
I was early introduced to Captain Smead, a man with a strong char- acter, not easily forgotten. At once he began talking politics to me, which - I warded off the best I could, for in that day and until this, I have never been in the habit of disputing in such matters, although most people know my political preferences and the way I would be likely to vote. Nobody ever encountered Captain Smead without finding that he thought nothing in the world was like the Advocate, his and his party's paper. He believed in it and in its sentiments then, and held to them strongly as long as he lived.
Another character in that day was my unique friend, Captain Bidwell, who was a member of my congregation. When present, he sat in one of the square pews at my left hand, watching the gallery as well as the pul- pit. Should the choir fail, as occasionally it did, in those days, he was on hand with his tuning-fork, and loudly calling out, "Portugal," or "Mear,"
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would with his uplifted arm beat time to his singing, leaving others to fol- low as best they could.
The boys and girls here to-night would have been glad to have been acquainted with the simple-minded, good-natured "Old Story," who, with his horse, a moving rack of bones, with ropes for harness, and a tumble- down rig, used to visit us with large quantities of the ripest and most famous black and thimble berries. The only drawback in the eyes of the purchaser was the allegation that he always picked them into his old boots and shoes. His great ambition was, as he said, "to get a pair of good nags, if I have to pay twenty shillings for them."
Mrs. John Magee, to whose strong character, good sense and helping hand, Mr. Magee was wont to attribute much of his success, was a Virginia lady of position, and widely known. A warm friend of mine, and an essential help to the Presbyterian church, she left to my trust several thou- sand dollars, which, according to her wishes, were distributed to the mis- sion work of our boards, as well as in other work. Mr. Magee gave to me, in her memory, for my new church in Ogdensburg, a marble font of large proportions and of ornate design and finish. It is prominent among the beauties of that pleasant sanctuary.
I remember very well Madam Thornton, respecting whom several things have been said here to-day. I am glad to add one word more. Past her prime a little, as I first saw her, she was still stately in her uprightness and queenly in her movements. With all her singularities and unique use of language, which many of you understand, she had also won- derful and sterling qualities. In the great reverses which came to her, from being the owner of many slaves and much property, and holding a high position in society, and thence down to real poverty and need through severe experiences, she manifested singular patience and fortitude. The nearest to complaint, which I recall, was once her saying, "I should be very content, while I staid here, were I sure of the same fare my old ser- vants always had in my kitchen." She came to Ogdensburg, where I saw her to the last. Supported by simple faith in Christ, and trusting to him as the Resurrection and the Life, she calmly waited her decease. To friends, telling her death was near, she replied, "Hush." She wished to go quietly and silently. I am glad to add this simple testimony concern- ing Madam Thornton to all that has been said about her to-day.
There was a notable colored man here, whose name was Simon Wat- kins, who was Major-domo in a good many things, and was called the Mayor of Bath. At that time Mr. Hubbell was our Representative in Con- gress. Mr. Hubbell and Mr. Watkins were great friends. Simon was a Democrat of the strongest kind, and, getting a picture of himself, he hand- ed it to Mr. Hubbell, as he was leaving Bath for Washington, with the request that, with his respects, he would give it to His Excellency, James
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K. Polk, the President. Our Congressman executed his commission. On his return, Simon asked him, " What did the President say ?" Mr. Hub- bell, with that naivete which belonged to him, a quirk in his eye and a smile on his face, replied, "He said, 'Ah ; that is a splendid nigger; I would give a thousand dollars for him.'" That was enough for Simon. He was a Democrat no more, and ever after that was a first-rate Repub- lican.
Our friend, Hon. I. W. Near, has been telling us of Kennedyville. I had an experience there myself which I must mention. The occasion was a marriage in high life between Mr. D. T. Tolliver and Miss Elizabeth Nichols, well-known colored people and acknowledged leaders in their best society life. Simon Watkins was Major-domo on this red-letter day, November 29, 1848. A carriage was sent to convey me in state to the most popular hotel in Kennedyville. I found the hotel in complete possession of my colored friends, and all under the lead of Mr. Watkins. Several white waiters and myself were the only white faces allowed there that day. By and by the hour of the wedding came, and the doors of the dining-room were withdrawn. In the centre stood the bride and groom and, on either side, six bridesmaids and six groomsmen, making a great circle, and flanked with a large crowd, in which the dresses were resplend- ent indeed-why ! the rainbow was outshone, and all of the colors in this room could n't begin with the glimmer and sheen of that occasion! The ceremony proceeded just as faultlessly as I could make it, and closing as effectively as possible, I made a polite bow. Quickly Simon stepped out before me and smilingly exclaimed, " Mr. Miller, very nicely done! But you no kiss the bride." "Simon," I retorted, "it is the minister's privi- lege to kiss the bride first ; and didn't you see that man who stole the kiss almost before I had the words out of my mouth, making them man and wife?" "Oh," said he, "you got out of that very nice."
Mr. McCall, this afternoon, told us of two executions. There was a third, that of Nero Grant, of Hammondsport, June 25, 1846. I was called as a clergyman to officiate. It was conducted privately in the hall of the old jail, and the impression created by it was apparently greater and more lasting on the community than either of the others, with all the publicity which attended them.
Among the ninety-one funerals at which I officiated, while here, those of two of our young people were particularly sad. The first occurred Oc- tober 20, 1844, a few days after my ordination, and the service was con- ducted in our church. Miss Sarah Wood, our skillful organist, a sweet singer and lovely young lady, died very suddenly. Her decease was a general surprise throughout the village as well as to her friends and the church. The large funeral and general mourning indicated her estima- tion among the citizens and the extent of the loss to all.
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By the presence of the Hon. Sherman S. Rogers here to-night I am re- minded of the death of Robert C. Rogers which occurred in California, October 17, 1850. He was buried at Sacramento City. My own brother, as well as Ansel J. McCall, were associated with him in California. The unexpected news of his death reaching here, stirred deep regret through- out the town at his decease and aroused wide-spread sympathy for the be- reaved family. Possessed of acknowledged talents, great frankness and integrity, as well as a loving and forcible nature, he gave promise of a useful and successful life, and for him it was easy to cherish great expec- tations. The spontaneous desire to give expression publicly to our sorrow resulted in a largely attended and impressive funeral service on December 1st, just after the arrival of the news of his decease. As the funeral of Miss Wood occurred just after my coming here, so that of Mr. Rogers was among the last that closed my pastorate here.
Advancement is the order of the age in which we live. We are not content to live without changes and an essay of improvement. Its inspi- ration enters into everything, even into changes of names of places. It leads us to attempt the classic. There is no more "Mud Creek" in our beautiful valley ; it is Savona. There is no more "Kennedyville ;" it is Kanona. There is no more " Blood's Corners " it is the mighty Atlanta.
We have been called by our chroniclers to behold and admire what has been accomplished during the past hundred years. Can you anticipate one hundred years yet to come? If you can, you must have a very fervid imagination. Think, for a moment, of what has transpired during the last hundred years. The continent from ocean to ocean, has been spanned and threaded by railroads. From a little more than three millions of people we have increased to almost seventy millions. In everything essen- tial to our prosperity the progress has been simply marvelous, and unpre- cedented in the history of nations. It is one century we have been talking of. The existence of the great nationalities, held up in contrast, has spread over many centuries. Give to this Republic another hundred years of growth and what may we not expect ?
The marvels of electricity are with us. The lighting up of such a room to the brightness you have here to-night is one of the new things. Wonderful as are the rates of speed in traveling, it is debated whether one hundred miles an hour shall limit the flight of the iron horse. The talk is now of a flying machine that shall cross the ocean with wings more speedy than the rate over the rail.
When you look at the amazing revelations which were made last year in the Columbian Celebrations of New York City and in the churches and school houses of our broad domain, and consider the presence of the great nationalities of the earth in the magnificent war ships which passed peace- fully up and down the water-ways of our Metropolitan city in the very
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heart of the Nation ; and then come on to the great Columbian Exposition of the whole world at Chicago to-day, where the mass of wonders is so mighty that more than a hundred and fifty miles in and around the " White City " must be traveled over, and months taken, to examine the exhibits minutely-then, and only then, can you begin to imagine the grand future that is to come.
Look at Bath, as it is, after striding along at its moderate rate. You can call to mind the small churches and the unpretentious residences of 1844, the period of my coming here. We had pleasant, though small, con- gregations in our churches, and pleasant people in the dwellings, and in many a cheerful parlor happy gatherings of a social, charitable company of citizens who lived kindly together. And looking back yet farther, it is not a hundred years since Rev. Seth Williston, D. D., a relative of the H. H. Hull family, preached the first sermon heard in Bath in the old Court House-spoken of to-day-to a congregation of about thirty persons, while at the same time the rest of the town, numbering about sixty, were on the green in Pulteney Square, around a gaming table. That was the beginning. Now, what elegant churches you have, supplied with a com- petent ministry, and supported by a large number of communicants and intelligent and appreciative congregations. To-day, beside elegant residences and large business facilities, you have a superior educational institution, a valuable free library, a royal home for the orphans, richly endowed, and an extensive home for the soldiers, with all needed facilities for cheerful protection, adequate support and a wide range of comfort. Anticipate, if you can, one hundred years, and you can only conclude that greater and better things are yet to come.
What great and good things we may expect! Oh, yes, friends, we were made in the image of God. His image intellectually, morally and spiritually is impressed upon us. We came from God. He has given to us all the goodness that blesses and cheers our homes. And as He inspires us with a sense of right and truth, we cherish, with all hope and faith and expectation, the result that the kingdoms of this world shall become, according to His promise, the kingdoms of our blessed Lord, the abodes of righteousness and peace. In that assurance there come all the achieve- ments of the highest civilization possible ; there come all the best improve- ments for which we can hope, and the realization of the dream of the cen- turies-the true Golden Age. These verities are in the wake of the Chris- tian life ; and as we come to their increasing experience, and wonder at every thing, we continually say, " Behold what God hath wrought."
REMINISCENCES.
BY CLARK BELL, ESQ.
The Early Pioneers of Bath and Its Vicinity,
The centuries are the mile-posts of human history. Since the birth of Christ, only eighteen have marked the march of events upon the earth, to which we of this generation are about to add another. They stand like sentinels, with far outstretching arms, touching midway, silent but elo- quent witnesses of the rise, the progress, and the fall of nations.
It has been said that one-third of a century is the fair average of human life, or a generation, but there are men now living on the earth who, more than one hundred years ago, touched living hands as old then as theirs now ; so that two lives thus in actual contact extend often more than two hundred years. How few men, thus connecting the age of the closing century with the infancy of the coming, could form a line which would reach from us back to the very cradle of our Lord.
The Nation now occupying this western continent is now celebrating its discovery, only four hundred years ago, and has invited all peoples to witness the phenomenal advance made by this new, cosmopolitan race (called Americans, after the country in which they live), in the recent past, indicative of a future unparalleled in the history of the world. The Rt. Hon. William E. Gladstone, in estimating our probable population at the middle of the next century, is under, rather than beyond the mark.
It is natural, in the reminiscences incident to a review of our National progress, that every section of the common country, and the people in each section of a state, should recall the part its locality has played in the progress that now excites the wonder and admiration of the civilized world.
At the termination of the Revolution of 1776, when success had crowned the efforts of the American patriots, and the Republic was estab- lished upon those lines that have widened and broadened into the Ameri- can Nation of to-day, Western New York was a wilderness. Of the Indian tribes, the Iroquois, the most powerful and warlike of them all, had set- tled at the head of the chain of lakes, which embellished the loveliest por- tion of the State, now called the Lake Country.
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There was here and there an outpost settled by the white man, like the old fort in the valley of the Schoharie, the settlements at Cherry Val- ley, those in the valley of the Wyoming, those on the Canadian frontier, and the points nearest in touch with the settlements on the sea-coast, where the adventurous pioneers had entered the wild unbroken wilderness of the West.
The struggle for mastery between the French and the English along the Canadian frontier, in which the Indians were sometimes allies of the one flag, and sometimes of the other, had left the white settlers of the ' colonies, sufferers at the outset of our Revolutionary struggle with the mother country, victims of the terrible massacres of Wyoming, of Cherry Valley, and that near Niagara, and had roused the most intense feeling among the early pioneers against the Indians who had been arrayed against the white settlers by the alternating successes of the early French, English and Indian wars.
The Iroquois, as called by the French, and the Six Nations, by the Eng- lish, were the owners of all that magnificent domain west of the Hudson River, north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. On the north, their lines reached into Canada ; far south into the lands where are now the Southern States, they held unlimited sway, and many tribes paid them tribute. Originally, there were five of these tribes-the Mohawks, dwell- ing near that river ; the Oneidas, on that lake ; the Cayugas, around the Cayuga, and the Senecas, the most powerful of all, held all that lay west of the Seneca Lake. In 1712, a tribe of southern Indians were driven by their enemies north, and were received by the Iroquois, named the Tus- caroras and given a home between the Oneidas and Onondagas, thus form- ing the Six Nations.
The headwaters of the Susquehanna River reached back past the city of Harrisburg, past Wilkes-Barre and Sunbury, water-ways which, travers- ing the mountain ranges and fed, by its east and west branches, the Tioga, the Chemung, the Canisteo and the Conhocton, led through the hundred silvery lines of their tributaries into the extremest spurs of the Allegany Mountains, and opened to the canoe of the red man, for centuries before Columbus was born, from the south-east, an enormous empire of this continent over which the Six Nations held imperial sway. This river and its tributaries drained a vast area of country, and much of the very waters which made the bulk of its deposit into the Chesapeake had come from the mountains and valleys of Steuben.
Here on these grand camping grounds, at the head of the central lakes of New York, sat the most powerful and war-like of the aboriginal tribes ; and here met in councils, and were the homes of the Six Nations, who could reach by canoes, with only slight carriages, their allies or their enemies, from the Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic, to all the remotest
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tributaries of the Great Lakes of the north and northwest, the Father of Waters, the Mississippi, in the west, and the Ohio on the south.
The Indian chieftain warriors of the early days, who occupied these commanding points, could send their messengers by canoe to the very headwaters of the tributaries of Lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan, with slight portages at a few points ; with the tributaries of the Delaware on the east, the Allegany and the Ohio on the south. The natural and commanding advantages of this position, upon the divides that sepa- rate the water-ways of the continent, held and controlled by the Iroquois, have been lost sight of by us in the marvelous changes wrought by steam and electricity in the brilliant onward march of our civilization in the cen- tury just closing.
The Phelps and Gorham purchase, and the contracts by which the Pul- teney Estate became possessed of that princely domain in Western New York, was the moving and impelling power that opened the way for the settlement and development of this wilderness to the early pioneer settlers of this region. Deeper down, however, than the impetus lent by the own- ers of this great estate, was that spirit of push, progress and adventure that has characterized the American name throughout all periods of its National life.
Bath became from the beginning the centre for the early settlers, the headquarters, the point from which the products of the section were float- ed down through the rivers, in arks and rafts, to the great cities upon the lower Susquehanna and the sea. All grain, lumber and products were thus borne to the world's markets from the interior of the State before the age of steam, and to run the rivers on the freshets was the universal ambition of all the younger men for the first half of the present century in Steuben.
All this region was covered by that magnificent growth of timber, especially the white pine, that now lies in the early structures of the great cities. The raftsmen of the Canisteo rivalled, and perhaps excelled, those of the Conhocton as carriers by the rivers. The timbers of the Astor House, in New York, came from the shores of Lake Keuka, as I was told by my old client, Merrit Potter, famous as a raftsman and dealer in lum- ber in the early days.
The era of steam railways was not inaugurated until the first third of the century had passed. In 1792, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, of the city of New York, was incorporated, with Philip Schuy- ler as president, to open communication between the Seneca Lake and Lake Ontario. The Erie Canal, proposed in 1808, started in 1811, through the efforts of De Witt Clinton and his confreres, was completed and opened October 26, 1825 ; and the Crooked Lake Canal Company, connecting the Lakes Keuka and Seneca, made the head of Lake Keuka, eight miles from Bath, the head of canal navigation for that part of Western New York,
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commenced in 1830, was opened and completed in 1833. The era of trans- portation by canal superseded, to some extent, that of the ark and raft on the rivers, except for lumber and timber, and the Erie canal did the carry- ing trade of the State in 1833, when the fierce whistle of the locomotive was first heard here and there by the early settlers.
When my father moved to Hammondsport, in 1835, there were only two railroads completed in the State, the Mohawk & Hudson, from Albany to Schenectady, fifteen miles in length ; the Saratoga Springs & Schenecta- dy, twenty-one miles in length, and the New York & Harlem Railroad was in process of construction, and had completed seven miles in 1834, from Prince street to Eighty-Fourth street, then called Yorkville (vide Williams New York Annual Register for 1834).
The same authority gave, in 1834, thirty-two lawyers in Steuben Coun- ty, of whom twelve were in Bath, viz: Robert Campbell, Jr., Daniel Cruger, George C. Edwards, Edward Howell, William Howell, Ziba A. Leland, Joseph G. Masten, D. McMaster, Sr., Henry W. Rogers, David Rumsey, Jr., George Woodruff, J. William Woods ; and. at Hammonds- port, four-B. W. Franklin, M. L. Schemerhorn, W. G. Angell and Morris Brown, in whose office at Hammondsport, I read law in 1850.
It is a notable fact that every one of these men are now dead, having mainly finished their careers in the Courts of Steuben. I knew these all personally save Daniel Cruger, Joseph C. Masten, William Woods, George Woodruff and M. L. Schemerhorn.
In 1834, a line of stages ran daily from Bath to Rochester, seventy- four miles, there connected with lines running to Olean, Cattaraugus Coun- ty, seventy miles, which line connected with the great through stage line from Bath to Geneva, and with the first through line established by Col- onel Williamson at the commencement of the century. These stages were the old-fashioned four-in-hands, mounted on thorough-braced leather springs, and the horn of the driver on the Bath and Geneva line sounded near Cornelius Younglove's farm, a mile before the stage stopped at Ham- mondsport to change horses, to notify passengers of its coming in advance, and across the valley at the head of the lake for the stage coming from Geneva. A line of stages then also ran from Catskill to Portland Harbor, on Lake Erie, 324 miles, via Ithaca, Catherine's, Mud Creek, Bath, Canis- teo, Angelica, etc., and the lines of packet boats on the Erie canal were then in full operation. Three daily lines from Schenectady to Utica, eighty miles, through in eighteen to twenty hours, fare, $3.50. A daily line from Utica to Rochester, 160 miles, through in thirty-eight hours ; one from Utica to Oswego, ninety-nine miles, in twenty hours ; one from Roch- ester to Buffalo, ninety-three miles, in twenty-four hours ; and a daily packet from Geneva to Montezuma, connecting with the through lines. Then came the era of railways, dividing the carrying trade with the canals.
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