USA > New York > Monroe County > Wheatland > Wheatland, Monroe County, New York : a brief sketch of its history > Part 7
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It was estimated that there were from three to five thousand people present during the day, among whom were many distinguished persons from Monroe, Livingston, Genesee and Wyoming Counties.
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THE O-AT-KA WOOLEN MILLS. MUMFORD, N. Y.
. ( The information upon which this article is based was furnished by Mr. Oliver Allen, 3d. )
In the year 1816 Oliver Allen, Ist. and William Remington first met at the Higbee Woolen Mills in Canandaigua, N. Y., and formed an acquaintance which afterwards ripened into a partner- ship in the woolen manufacturing business.
In 1821 Remington and Allen came to Caledonia, N. Y. and started a woolen mill where the New York State Fish Hatchery now is. This was one of the first, if not the first, woolen mill west of the Genesee River. In 1829 they bought a water privi- lege in Mumford, N. Y., on Allan's Creek, or as it was called by the Indians, the " O-at-ka, " and there built the stone mill which is still standing, and which was long known as Allen's Mill on Allan's Creek, at Mumford.
In 1841 Remington and Allen dissolved partnership and the mills were operated until 1844 by Oliver Allen, Ist. In the latter year he took his son, Oliver Allen, 2d, into partnership with him and the firm was Oliver Allen and Son until 1848, when the father died. Oliver Allen, 2d, continued the business until 1877, when his son, Oliver Allen, 3d, became a member of the firm, which again became Oliver Allen and Son, and so continued until 1902 when the mill was closed and the business discon- tinued. Thus for over eighty years the manufacture of woolen goods continued in the hands of three generations of the Allen family.
When Allen and Remington dissolved partnership in 1841 the latter took part of the lands owned by the firm and went to farming. He had one son, William, who is a Baptist preacher in the west, and one daughter, Mary, who married Alexander Christie and lives on the " Creek Road " above Mumford. His sister, Jerusha H. Remington, married Oliver Allen, Ist, and beside their son Oliver Allen, 2d, they had one daughter, Eliza- beth M. Allen, who married John R. Olmstead, of Le Roy, N. Y., and is still living - 1907.
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Oliver Allen, 2d, died in 1903 and his widow, who was Miss Catherine Huchins Seaman, of Palmyra, N. Y., survives him and is living with her daughter, Mrs. Frances A. Campbell, in Brook- lyn, N. Y. Another daughter, Miss Kate Elizabeth Allen, is also living in Brooklyn and four sons, Oliver Allen, 3d, Leonard Lewis Allen, Ethan Allen and Harry Allen, have their homes in Buffalo, Rochester and New York City respectively.
The hospitality dispensed at the Allen home in Mumford will long be remembered by all who enjoyed it. The old O-at-ka Mill and the homestead are now the property of Judge Harvey F. Remington. of Rochester, N. Y., a relative of William Reming- ton. The Allen's were all known for their enterprise and public spirit and were interested in everything looking to the material and moral benefit of the community. Oliver Allen, 2d, (together with Major D. D. S. Brown of Scottsville ) was one of the chief promoters of the Rochester and State Line Railroad ( now the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg R. R, ) and was its first presi- dent; this was at a time when Wheatland had no direct railroad communication with the rest of the world.
The permanent fame of the O-at-ka Mills under the Allen's management was due not only to the fact that they gave employ- ment to many persons, and a market for home grown wool, but to the superior quality of the goods manufactured, which had a national reputation as being " A No. 1 " in every respect - " all wool and a yard wide. "
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REMINISCENCES OF FRANCIS X. BECKWITH. GATES, N. Y., 1882.
In May, 1830, I took up my residence in Scottsville. The village at that time contained a population of four hundred. The brick mill of Judge Carpenter was built that year. The Hanford Mill had been running some years.
The Methodist Society had a new brick church. The Presby- terians were occupying the Academy building on Caledonia Street, but were preparing to build a church, which they did the following year, placing it at the head of Church Street. The first Methodist minister was John Copeland, who was followed by John Wiley. Mr. Hart, a Scotchman, was the Presbyterian minister.
The Masons had a lodge room in the upper story of the old school house on Rochester Street, but had ceased to hold meet- ings on account of the excitement over the abduction of Morgan.
Joseph Eastman was teaching the Academy, then practiced law in the village, and afterward removed to Rochester, where he still resides. ( 1882. )
The Robinson family were living in Scottsville in 1830. Their daughter Rebecca married James Mc Vean; Samuel went west and died there some four years ago; Abram is now keeping hotel in Scottsville. .
Paul Austin was married to Alvira Hammond and was living where his widow now resides and was taking care of old Mrs. Scott, widow of Isaac Scott.
Anson Seymour was running a cloth making and coloring works. He was succeeded by a Mr. Eaton, and Eaton by Mr. Atwood.
Alvin Savage was a boss millwright; Amos Beecher married Savage's daughter Betsy. Beecher died and James Wells married his Widow. Thomas Coller married Jane, a daughter of Savage,
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and W. G. Ashby married another. James Savage, a son of Alvin, a musician, moved to Detroit, Michigan.
George Ensign, Isaac I. Lewis, E. T. Miller, John Harroun, Henry Tarbox, Thomas Jones, Thomas Halsted, Joseph Thoms and Wm. Peabody were in Scottsville when I went there. Mr. and Mrs. Zachariah Cumber, Mrs. Raulet, the mother of Fifield Raulet, and Mrs. Dean, a sister of Powell Carpenter, were there also. Enos Trayhern came in 1836; George T. Bristol and Horace Chapin in 1840; Albert Row about the same time.
Harvey Killam and Ephraim Bingham had a foundry, made plows, etc., on the site where the Rafferty shops now are, Solomon Davis had a cabinet shop on the same ground. I rented from him a part of the shop and commenced the manufacture of chairs. Albert Howe had a harness shop nearly opposite the Robinson Hotel; John Hammond was his apprentice and suc- ceeded him in the business; Hammond sold to S. O. Severance. Edward Collins was the Boss Mason and was followed by Daniel P. Hammond; John T. Spencer had a shoe shop which he sold to Read & Goodrich, who for several years did a large business.
Doctors Bristol, Edson and Munn were the village physicians. Bristol soon afterward retired from practice; Munn sold to Mc Naughton.
Wm. Haynes Hanford, Osborn Filer, John Mitchel and Ira Carpenter were merchants. Filer succeeded Abraham Hanford in trade, afterward removed to Massillon, Ohio, and died there.
Thomas Halsted was in the grocery trade but soon after bought the Isaac Scott property opposite the Eagle Hotel, then owned by Isaac I. Lewis, and built a frame building for a store and occupied it. Afterward this property passed into the hands 'of Andrus & Garbutt, then to L. C. Andrus and later the block, together with the dwelling adjoining on the west, came into my possession and for twenty years was occupied by me for my business and residence.
A man named Coon had just built the brick house on the east side of Church Street, now occupied by Mrs. Duncan Mc Vean.
Haynes Hanford had finished his brick residence on the corner
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opposite the Catholic Church.
George Ensign had forsaken the cooperage and was with Ezra Carpenter in the Eagle Hotel.
Michael Sheridan was the blacksmith; Lowry Blackburn, John Conners and William Carson worked for him, and afterward had shops of their own. Orrin Cartright and George Hahn were in the trade later.,
Powell and Ira Carpenter ran the brick mill; Abraham Hanford, Lewis Goodrich, Joseph Cox and Samuel Scofield the wooden mill. Joseph Woodgate, John Brown, Calvin Nobles and Ellis Mc Queen were practical millers. George Whitney was the village butcher. Gilbert T., George L. and David Whitney were his sons. Solomon Davis, Isaac Mc Donald, F. X. Beckwith and Joseph Weingand, cabinet makers. John Kirk, A. B. Penfield, James Wells, John Storrs and John Cornell were tailors. Schuyler Moses, John Bottsford, David Nettleton and Luke Marvin,- carpenters.
Asa Beecher, Nelson Gould, William Kemp and William Brown - shoemakers; F. X. Beckwith, John Morehouse, John Mathews and Joseph Quincy - painters; Henry Tarbox, Joseph Thoms, John Ferguson, John Wilber and Patrick Rafferty - wagon makers; Isaac North, John Deitz and George Valleau - black- smiths; Isaac I. Lewis and old Mr. Buck, and Harvey Hyde were coopers.
Old Peter Sheffer was living on the farm bought of Indian Allan. Joseph and Isaac Cox were on farms south of the village. Thomas and Samuel Shadbolt, and Joseph and Benjamin Bower- man also. Powell Carpenter and his sons, Powell, Charles, Jefferson and Benjamin were on the farm on the hill west of Scottsville, Ezra was in the Eagle Hotel and Ira had a store and the Post Office.
Old Esquire Mc Vean and his sons Hugh, John and James, were on the farm next west of Carpenter, and William Reed, with a family of boys, was on the same road still farther west. The other Mc Vean family, David, Duncan, John and Archibald, lived on the north road near Mr. Goodhue's. George Goodhue
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removed from Parma to Wheatland in 1806 and settled on Lot 44 on the north road. His wife died in 1844. He died in 1851. John and George Goodhue were his sons. Reuben Heath, who for many years had lived on the farm now owned by M. Ballen- tine, was dead and the farm was worked by his sons Elisha, Reuben and William. Mrs. Thomas Halsted, Mrs. Harvey Hyde, Mrs. David Nettleton, Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Southworth were his daughters. Frank, Robert and Thomas Smith lived nearby.
Thomas Mc Intosh, a friend of mine, came to Scottsville in 1837 and was a clerk for Mr. Garbutt and Ira Carpenter and afterward was Collector of Tolls on the Genesee Valley Canal.
During the last of the thirties the school district in the village was at a low ebb and not what it ought to be. The practice had been to hire a teacher as longas the public money lasted. When that was gone school was out. Some of the residents of the district thought the school good enough but a few of those who thought otherwise had a consultation and resolved to make an effort to secure a better and more efficient school. In 1840 John Hammond, A. B. Penfield and myself were elected trustees and we went to work. Our first move was to enlarge the district, and this we accomplished by annexing No. 4, a district in the western part of the village. We then secured, by a vote of the district, authority to build a new school house and in the following year we purchased of Paul Austin a site, and erected thereon a sub- stantial brick building containing two large rooms with anteroom, etc. ( This building was the east half of the brick house yet standing on east Third Street. ) We then offered the school to Mr. Catana, who was then teaching a select school in the village, but he declined on the ground that such a step would be back- ward and not an advance. We then hired a young man named Baker ( afterward the Rev. Asa Baker of the M. E. Church ) as principal, and Miss Oliver ( who later became Mrs. Francis Hooper ) as assistant. Both these teachers did their work admi- rably and in a single year succeeded in giving the school a first class reputation.
In 1843 District No. 10 on the north road was divided, the western portion attached to the Garbutt district and the eastern
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portion to district No. I. This accession, together with the acqui- sition of some territory on the north, was so great as to necessi- tate the enlargement of the school buildings, which was done by erecting upon the west side a structure of equal dimensions, thus doubling its capacity, affording three large school rooms, and a room for the library and recitations.
Mr. Baker's successors as principal were Carmi C. Olds, Nathan A. Woodard and Dr. Morris W. Townsend. The lady teachers in addition to Miss Oliver were Mary Jane Halsted, Jerosha Clark, Ann Buttolph, Sarah Allen, Anna Dixon and Miss Thorn. The school continued to gain in popularity and at the close of the decade there was none better in this part of the state.
Phederus Carter, J. A. Eastman, J. C. Chumasero, Alexander Mann, E. Peshine Smith, D. D. S. Brown and John Dorr prac- ticed law in the village between 1830 and 1850.
Caleb Allen was a shoemaker, afterward Justice of the Peace. H. B. Marsh was a jeweler, later Albert Rowe in the same trade. Ebenezer Smith and Sears Galusha were early residents. H. H. Miller and O. P. Simmons started in the marble business about 1850. Eight or ten years later Simmons sold his interest to his partner and Miller conducted the business until a short time previous to his death, when it was disposed of to William A. Williams.
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NOTES ON MUMFORD, BY MISS MARGARET ARMSTRONG.
Prior to 1808 John and Robert Mc Kay had purchased of Captain Williamson, the agent of the Pulteney Estate, the land and water power where the village of Mumford now stands, and on the site built a sawmill.
In 1809 Robert Mc Kay sold his interest to Thomas Mumford.
" In 1817 Mckay and Mumford built a large grist mill at Mumford. About 1822 Mc Kay took the Caledonia mill, and Mumford the one at Mumford. He transferred it to his son Elisha S. H. Mumford, from whom the place is named. Mumford operated the mill until 1833 when H. Hutchinson rented it. Not long afterward the property was sold to Philip Garbutt, and his son Peter ran it for a few years. It subsequently passed to Stephen Saulsbury, to Galbraith and Hammond, to James Mc Queen, to Benjamin Christy, then to Page and son. The mill burned in 1894."
( From History of Monroe County. )
Other industries in Mumford have been, a brewery erected in 1828 by L. White. White had many successors in the malting and brewing business, the last one being the late C. H. Swan of Caledonia. The building burned in 1900.
Some time in 1837 Mr. James Blair opened a shop for the manufacture of threshing machines and horse-powers. He worked at his business until the horse power gave place to the engine. Several years ago John and Henry Brown had a carriage factory here. They were followed by Nichols and Graham in 1860. Nichols remained in the village until 1883 when he went to Rochester, coming back in 1884 he and his son worked at the business until 1894, when they went to Le Roy.
Ira Harmon and Philip Garbutt had plaster mills in the village for several years. George Stewart has the Garbutt mill now for
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a saw mill and a machine shop. The Nichols building stands on the site of the Harmon plaster mill.
In 1883 the building now occupied by L. H. Gardiner was built by Stroebel and Allen for a cloth mill. It was used for that purpose for a few years. Mr. Turner rented it for a pipe factory in 1899. In the fall of 1901 he moved his shop to Rochester. The following spring Mr. Wm. Ulter and Mr. Cleary opened it again for the manufacture of pipes. In 1904 they moved to Olean. Mr Gardiner came from Rochester in 1905 and started a paper mill in this building.
The Mumford Rural Cemetery was incorporated in 1881. The first burial was that of a child named Anderson, in 1805 or 1807. Section B. was added to the north end of the original plot in 1858. The first burial in the new part was Mr. Isaac Bowers. In 1884 additions were made on the east and west sides. Mr. Newell Skinner was the first one buried on the east side.
CHURCHES OF MUMFORD.
I find the following items of Church history in a history of Monroe County published in 1877 :-
The Episcopal Church of Mumford built a small frame church in 1835 where now stands the brick school house. The society worshiped here a few years and then dissolved. The church was the first one erected in the village, and it and its site were sold for school purposes. The minister was Rev. Gillespie who gave the society but part of his time.
In 1838 or '39 the Rev. C. B. Smith, a Congregationalist came to the village of Mumford, held a series of meetings, at which a number experienced religion, when a Congregational Church was constituted numbering twelve or fifteen members; but they only continued a short time, when the church died.
St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church of Mumford was built in the early 50's, while Father James Mc Glen was priest in Scotts- ville. The Scottsville priest officiated here until 1886 when St. Columba's church was erected at Caledonia. Since that time the priests from Caledonia have ministered to the Mumford
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congregation. The following priests have officiated: Revs. Story, Donohue, Maher, Madden, Eisler, and Gommenginger. Father Eisler is the priest at present.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
During the summer of 1851, Rev. W. W. Evarts pastor of the Baptist church at Wheatland, commenced holding meetings in Mumford, and aroused so much interest that Mr. Evarts was asked to circulate a subscription paper, to build a meeting house. A site was given and at a meeting held January 18, 1852 Oliver Allen, Jedediah Phelps and Peter Garbutt were elected a building committee. In March 1852 the contract was let to R. W. Wilcox, to build a frame church 38 x 54.
The First Baptist Church of Mumford was organized Dec. 9th, 1852, with a membership of thirty-eight. The meeting house was finished Aug. 20th, and turned over to the trustees and was accepted by them. On the 23d of Aug. it was dedicated, Rev. W. W. Evarts preaching the Dedicatory Sermon. Rev. C. A. Wardner pastor elect of the congregation, assumed his duties at once. His pastorate continued until Jan. 31, 1857, when he resigned. The church was supplied by students from the Roch- ester Theological Seminary for the next three years. The Rev. D. B. Munger was called in April 1860 and resigned May 5, 1866. Rev. M. W. Holmes was settled over the two churches, Wheatland and Mumford, from Oct. 1866 to July, 1867. March Ist, 1868 Elder David Morse entered on his labors as joint pastor of both churches, which lasted ten months.
Other pastors have been Revs. S. W. Culver from Dec, 1871 to May 1877; R. M. Martin, Sept. 1877 to 1879; A. S. Freeman from May 1880 to Feb. 1885; Mr. Mc Killop from June 1886 to 1889; Geo. D. Rogers served as pastor and supply while studying at Rochester; Mr. Mallory, Mar. 1892 to Mar. 1893; Wm. J. Reid from Sept. 1893 to July 1895; F. W. Cliff, Sept. 1895 to Feb. 1898; Joseph Taylor from Nov. 1898 to Apl. 1900; from Sept. 1900 to July 1901 the church was supplied by Mr. King from the Semi- nary; Rev. J. B. Barbour from 1901 to 1906; Rev. Robbins com- menced his labors in March 1907.
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The following gentlemen have served as deacons: Rawson Harmon, W. F. Garbutt, Donald Mc Naughton, Chauncy Johnson, Newell Skinner, Chester Brown, Eugene Harmon, John E. Harvey.
On September 30, 1882, the brethren and sisters of the Wheat- land church formally united with the Mumford church, during the pastorate of A. S. Freeman. In 1871 the trustees of the church purchased a house of R. W. Wilcox for a parsonage.
I am indebted to Mr. A. S. Grant for the history of this church.
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
The United Presbyterian Church of Mumford was organized May 13, 1869 by the Presbytery of Caledonia, with twenty-seven members. Most of them came from the United Presbyterian Church of Caledonia. The congregation worshiped for several years in a building owned by Mr. Dugald Mc Queen. Rev. W. J. Robinson of Beulah supplied the congregation from the time of its organization until Feb. 1873. Rev. W. H. Haney was pastor of the two congregations from June 1873 to Oct. 1883; Rev. J. A. Nelson from April 1884 to Nov. 1884; Rev. C. H. Robinson from July 1886 to July 1889; Rev. W. W. Lawrence from April 1890 to April 1893; Rev. D. L. Mc Nary from Sept. 1893 to Nov. 1896; Rev. J. A. Mc Kirahan from Dec. 1897 to March 1900; Rev. W. P. Cooley from Nov. 1900 to March 1905; Rev. J. L. Howie was installed pastor of the church Oct. 1905. The elders who have served the church have been Messrs. Samuel Irvin, Wm. Robertson, Oliver Allen, David Nichols, John Faulkner, A. F. Mc Pherson, Millard Bigford, John Armstrong, and Addison Kingsbury.
A subscription paper was circulated in the autumn of 1869 to · raise the funds for building a church and the following spring the building was commenced. It was not finished until the fall of 1883. It is built of stone found on the farm of the late Oliver Allen. Its dimensions are 56 feet by 36. It is built in Gothic style. The stone was donated by Mr. Allen.
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SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH.
During the year 1897, the colored people of Mumford and vicinity built a small frame church in Mumford which was organized as the Second Baptist Church of Mumford. Elder Cole acted as pastor until 1906, when he resigned. The pastors and supplies at the First Baptist Church have officiated since then. George Stewart was the builder of the church.
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BEAR STORIES.
The descendents of Samuel Cox living in this vicinity have a tradition of an encounter in the early days of Wheatland's settle- ment between one of their ancestors and a bear. This story had never appeared in print until some ten years ago, when Mr. E. P. Clapp, of Rush, wrote it up and it was published in the Roches- ter Post Express. The following is Mr. Clapp's version of the affair.
The village of Scottsville in 1806 was quite different in its appearance, as can readily be imagined, from the Scottsville of to-day. South of Scottsville, in a double log house on the farm now owned by Clifford Davis, lived Samuel Cox. His family consisted of his wife, his mother, his sons Joseph, Isaac, and James, and his daughters Keturah, Mary and Susanah. They were members of the Society of Friends and had been in Scottsville but a short time. The town was cleared up but very little, the woods were infested with bears and wolves, to say nothing of an occasional panther and lynx. Raccoons and squirrels were common. Deer were plenty and the Genesee Valley of ninety years ago was a veritable sportsman's paradise. Sheep and pigs had to have special care, wolves were heard to howl, bear tracks were often seen and Bruin when hungry had no objection to a dinner of pork and the early settlers were compelled to keep their pigs close to their dwellings.
The Coxes having a fine pig had built a high strong pen of logs against their house to keep him in. On the flats toward the river bridge lived a bear. Hunger and curiosity prompted him to investigate the premises of the Cox's and spying their pig he concluded to confiscate it. Climbing into the pen he caught the pig and with it in his strong embrace climbed out and started towards the river. The pig protesting against such proceedings had alarmed the family by his loud and vigorous squealing. This, with the frightened cries of the women, brought the men from their work. Isaac Cox, a young man of twenty, armed with his gun started in pursuit. Bruin was walking on his hind legs with his fore legs around the middle of the pig, which he held
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securely with a hug such as bears only are capable of giving. The pig, having given up all hopes, was squealing in a sort of hopeless way with the little strength that was left him.
To'the early settlers in the Genesee country a pig had quite a value and to have him taken in such a way caused considerable excitement even in a quiet Quaker family. Isaac, cool but with hurried steps, overtook the thief in the field south of Isaac Bud- long's barn. The bear, hearing his pursuer near, turned around and with an open countenance uttered a long and ugly growl. Now it was necessary to use some skill. A wild shot might kill the pig and not the bear, as the latter held his prey in front of him and it nearly covered his bearship's person. But the young man was equal to the emergency and taking a good aim fired. The pig loosened from his embrace made a bee line for home as fast as a pig ever did. The bear fell forward dead, the well directed shot had passed through his open mouth into his brain and his hide was uninjured by the shot. The skin was taken off as a trophy and the family returned to its daily routine.
ANOTHER BEAR STORY.
The late Shelby Reed, of Chili, is responsible for the following statement: As late as the year 1824 Paul Austin shot and killed a bear beneath a slaughter house that stood in the woods on the north bank of the Oatka, a few rods east of where the Genesee Valley Canal Lock was afterward built. Large game occasionally came into the neighborhood as late as 1830. Tom Pease and John T. Brown were great hunters in those days. I well remem- ber the great drive hunt in the Caledonia Swamp.
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INDEX TO SUBJECTS.
SUBJECT.
PAGE.
" Academy, " ať Scottsville,
59, 60, 63, 99. 51.
Albright's Mill,
Allan, Ebenezer or " Indian "
14, 15, 18, 25, 43, 73, 101. 15, 16, 18, 24.
Allan's Creek.
51, 69, 97.
Allan's Creek, ferry near its mouth,
30.
Allan's Creek, landing near its mouth,
29.
Allen's Mill on Allan's Creek,
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