USA > Pennsylvania > Potter County > Genesee > Genesee echoes : the upper gorge and falls area from the early days of the pioneers > Part 2
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In a few years the brothers had quite large orchards and some small fruits. Other people took up land near by and improved it. Castile was then a "city" to the farmer pioneers.
The oxcart was replaced by horse and wagon, although oxen were still kept for hard farm work. While clearing the land, the brothers built a sawmill on the river where the logs were cut into lumber and rafted down the Genesee to Rochester. There they were sold or exchanged for other things. The Jones brothers and the other settlers cut the material to build their homes and barns. A furniture factory also was built near the Lower Falls, and a small grocery store is believed to have been there at one time.
Another sawmill site was on the river back of Chestnut Lawn farm. The last known owner was Ira Jones, father of Ray Jones, of Warsaw. A very steep path over the bank was the only way to reach it except to travel down the river bed from the Rafting Place.
Others who settled early were Nathan Davis, Jr., Asel Fan- cher, A. Hall, Benjamin Wheeler, Torry Green, and A. Jenkins.
Nathan Davis, Jr., came to Genesee Falls in 1840. His father, Nathan Davis, Sr., was one of six brothers, John, Nathan, Job, Gideon, Pardon, and Perry, who were born in Wales between 1754 and 1773. They had one sister, Mary. All six brothers came to America. Nathan located in Massachusetts and later married
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INDIAN RESERVATIONS
Lucina Ann Eddy. They moved to New York State and settled at Galway, Saratoga County. Six children were born to them, Nathan, Jr., Sarah, Ruth, Charles, Isaac, and Anthony. Nathan, Jr., married Susan H. Aikins, and to them were born five chil- dren, Jacob, William T., Mary E., Merritt, and Edwin. Mary E. married Milan Jones, son of Perry Jones. Their children were Rosetta A., George W., and Merritt. Rosetta married Pardon Earl. To her memory and foresight, we owe a large share of these records. Her grandson, Earl Ebner, has preserved them with care.
Nathan Davis, Jr., was a cabinetmaker and for many years carried on an extensive business. I believe he was the one to have the furniture factory on Deh-ga-ya-soh Creek.
Jacob lived near Utica. Merritt married Maryette Pond, daughter of Seva Pond. William, whose middle name was Terry, came to live at Genesee Falls soon after his father came. He mar- ried Nancy Shaw for his first wife. There were eight children, six of whom lived-James, Maria, Susan, Norman, Nathan III, and Martha. William was a watchman on the Erie Railroad bridge for many years. He was the one just off duty when the bridge burned in 1875. (See Chapter III.) He lived at the foot of Glen Iris hill in the little house where, years later, his daughter Maria had a refreshment stand. Edwin Davis married Kathryn Kohler and had one son, Frank. Frank married Jennie Kohler. Their children include Kathryn (Welch), Merritt, Laura (Mrs. John Strauch), Norman, Mae, William (deceased), Helen (Moses) , Barbara (Ames), and Ruth.
The family names of Jones and Davis are as old as any in the Letchworth Park region.
Settlers moved into the valley from the south and north, but the rugged country around the Falls was the last to be attacked by the woodman's axe. Several mills were built along the river. However, a few years' work on the virgin timber brought an end to the income in lumbering, and the early settler was ready to sell his land when William Pryor Letchworth came along in 1859.
CHAPTER III
THE UPPER FALLS
THE UPPER FALLS area was too rugged for much building to take place there. Deh-ge-wa-nus Creek flows into the river near the Falls. T. Olcott, Benjamin Wheeler, and George Williams are believed to have been the first to own land on the west side of the river, although the name Dixon appears on a very early map. On the east side, in the very mist of the Upper Falls, Seth Smith and a Mr. Martin built a sawmill. The New York Gazet- teer states that the first settlements were made above Portageville in 1804 by John, Samuel, and Seth Fields, followed by Nathan and Joseph Dixon, Joseph and Justice Bailey, and Sebetiah Ward previous to 1807.
The same authority states that the first sawmill was erected in 1812, the first grist mill in 1820 by Mumford, Smith, and Mc- Kay. Whether the sawmill could have been the mill perched on the brink of the Upper Falls is not known. It was an early ven- ture and remained there after the wooden bridge was built in 1851-52. Later pictures of the bridge show no sign of it, but a fair early picture proves it existed. The banks were steep and no houses were built very near the Upper Falls. They were erect- ed on the flat land between the Upper and Middle Falls.
The river being very narrow at a point above the Upper Falls, this site was selected for the first railroad bridge, which was built of wood. Thirteen stone piers, set in the bed of the river and into the bank on each side, formed the foundation on which it stood. The piers were 30 feet high, the trestle 190 feet, and the truss 14 feet, making a total height of 234 feet. The length was 800 feet. The bridge is said to have contained lumber from 246 acres of pine timber (1,602,000 feet), 108,802 pounds of iron in bolts, etc., and 9,200 yards of masonry. Each trestle would sustain 3,109 tons in addition to its own weight and that of the truss above.
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THE UPPER FALLS
Governor Washington Hunt and President Loder of the Erie Company, with other officials of the railroad, were present when the first train was run across.
A dedication ceremony was held August 25, 1852, followed by a huge banquet. The menu was very impressive. A copy on white silk is preserved at the Cordelia A. Greene Library in Castile.
MENU
SOUP-Bean, St. Julienne.
FISH-Boiled salmon, parsley sauce; boiled striped bass, oyster sauce; Mack- inaw trout, lobsters, brook trout, chowder.
BOILED-Mutton, caper sauce; boiled turkey, oyster sauce; boiled chicken, egg sauce; tongue, corned beef, ham.
ROAST-Beef from ox presented by George B. Chase, weight 3600 pounds; mutton, jelly sauce; veal, turkey, chicken, lamb, mint sauce; pig.
SIDE DISHES-Beef a la mode, baked ham, curried fowl and rice, broiled breast of lamb, mutton chops, breaded; macaroni aux grattan (sic); fried pork and liver, boiled turkey, broiled chicken, fried oysters, chicken potpie, chicken fricassee, veal cutlets, plain; pork and beans.
GAME-Prairie chickens.
PASTRY-Apple pie, blackberry pie, rice pudding.
CONFECTIONERY -- Ice cream, blanc mange, calf's foot jelly.
DESSERT-Apples, peaches, pineapples, melons, nuts, raisins.
The adults gathered in a huge mess hall which had been used by the workmen while building the bridge. In accordance with an old custom, the children were served in a tent and ate roast beef. This fact, no doubt, saved many lives that day. A number of adults became very sick and some died after eating meat from the ox, which had become tainted.
The wooden bridge at Portage stood for nearly twenty-three years. It was said to have been planned by a boy only sixteen years old, so constructed that any part of it could be taken out and repaired or replaced without injuring or weakening the structure in the slightest degree. Guards were kept on it day and night to watch for fire. However, on the sixth of May, 1875, the dreaded disaster occurred. A full account was printed by the Buffalo Courier, as written by a distinguished eyewitness, W. P. Letchworth.
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BURNING OF THE BRIDGE
"You have already chronicled the destruction of the Portage bridge, but a few facts not reported may be read with interest.
"The last train that crossed Portage bridge on Tuesday night last going west was a passenger train, and passed over at 10:40. The watchman, William T. Davis, followed the train over to the west end of the bridge, as was customary, and returned, finding everything all right. A few minutes after midnight he left the bridge, his time of watch having expired, and went down to Portage village to the house of Mr. Abbott, a relative of his. Be- fore entering the house he was able to take in a view of all the west end of the bridge, and looking in that direction he saw no lights but those of the usual signals. He thinks his last look at the bridge was about a quarter to one o'clock. The next train that crossed was also a passenger train going east, and passed over at 12:50 P.M.
"The watchman, Pardon Earl, states that he was at the east end of the bridge when the train passed, that he crossed the bridge to the west end immediately thereafter, and returned near to the east end, when looking west, he saw a small blaze in the decking of the bridge, not far from the west end. He re- turned to it and endeavoring to stamp it out with his feet broke a hole through the deck of the bridge. The floor broke through so easily that he concluded the fire must have come from under the deck or uppermost covering of the bridge.
"A quantity of hose was kept in the trusswork at each end of the bridge. The fire had attained such headway that he could not reach it at the west end so returned to the east end of the bridge. There he connected the hose to the water pipe, but was unable to turn on the water, from some defects in the cocks or in consquence of their having become rusted from disuse during the winter. Nothing remained for him to do but alarm the neighborhood, meantime leaving the doomed structure to its fate. He thought the precise time the fire was discovered by him was one o'clock.
"A farmer living in full view of the bridge on one of the hills near by was up during the whole night attending a sick member of his family. At the hour last named, or a little earlier, he ob-
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THE UPPER FALLS
served the two signal lights at each end of the bridge as usual and what appeared to him to be another larger light a little below the line of the other two, which are placed on top of the bridge at each end. This light grew larger as he looked and he soon realized that the bridge was on fire and the flames spread rapidly.
"The water which was supplied as a safeguard was brought from a copious and never-failing stream on the west side in a four-inch cast-iron pipe, and was carried across the bridge amid the trusswork supporting the track a few feet underneath the decking. At intervals faucets were placed for attaching the hose, of which a liberal supply has always been provided. This water also supplies the water tanks at Portage station, on the east side of the Genesee, and the fountains at the Cascade House.
"The fire, left to itself, extended rapidly through the upper trusswork and along a wooden box surrounding the waterpipe and the light work under the main deck, the flames being fanned by a gentle breeze blowing down the river. The light material thus fired soon fell in heavy fragments on the framework below. I was aroused from sleep at ten minutes to four o'clock, and in a few minutes was standing upon the lawn at Glen Iris from which point every portion of the bridge was visible, as well as the Up- per Falls, river and Middle Falls. The spectacle presented at pre- cisely four o'clock was fearfully grand, every timber in the bridge seemed then to be ignited, and an open network of the fire was stretched across the upper end of the valley.
"Above the bridge and touching its upper line a black curtain hung down from the sky, its lower edge belted with a murky fringe of fire. The hoarse growl of the flames and the cracking of the timbers sounded like a hurricane approaching through the forest. At this time the Upper Falls seemed dancing in a silver light. The water in the river was glistening with a bright glare thrown upon it, and the whole valley of Glen Iris was illumi- nated in tragic splendor. Now and then could be seen an out- standing brace dislodged and sailing flaming downward. These huge brands would fall on the river below with a great splash. At fifteen minutes past four the superstructure of the west end of the bridge sank downward and the depression rolled through- out its length to the east end like the sinking of an ocean wave. The whole upper structure including the heavy T rails, went
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down with a crashing sound so terrible as it came to our ears on the wind, that it surpassed the prolonged roar of the falling ava- lanches one may hear at times in spring upon the declivities of the Western Alps.
"Timber, rails, bolts, abrading and dislodging burning coals as they fell, crashed downward into indistinguishable ruin. As the stupendous mass fell, a dark red cloud intermingled with crim- son flame usurped the place of the brilliant lacework, and a dark- ened shadow lay over the glen. The silver light reflected from the Upper Falls was gone and the foaming current changed its ap- pearance to that of rosy wool. Out of the huge cloud that then filled the end of the Glen, there arose a vast and beautiful canopy of seeming gold dust. This was lifted upward and extended from hill to hill on the right and left, shutting out every glimpse of the sky. The breeze wafted the seeming sparkling dust nearer to us, and as it came it grew brighter and the particles larger and still larger, until the whole heavens in every quarter seemed filled with falling stars. These coals, many as large as hen's eggs, fell in the pine grove at the Indian council house, at the farther end of the Glen. They seemed innumerable and filled the sky with inconceivable splendor.
"Burning fragments of the bridge fell all about the upper end of the valley, covering hillsides apparently with steadily burning signals. At this time a strange weird light illuminated the river and brightened in an unearthly glare all the surroundings. Al- though the main upper structure of the bridge fell at fifteen minutes past four o'clock, lighter portions of the framework still remained. Through the lurid smoke glimpses of fragmentary sections of the bridge might be seen. Forked crimson flames shot up all along the ground line of the gulf and river bed. At the left still brighter flames illuminated like a vast beacon the sum- mit of the cliff on the Livingston County side. Blazing timber still continued to fall uninterruptedly, and the rocks, becoming heated, exploded in loud and almost continuous bursts of sound. These might be compared to a rattling fire of musketry, except that they were very much louder, sometimes resembling the dis- charge of artillery. The falling and burning timbers lodged between the piers, and the water settling back on this burning mass produced strange sounds.
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THE UPPER FALLS
"At twenty minutes past four the explosions of the heated rocks blend into an almost continuous roar. At half past four o'clock the shower of golden sparks passing over the Glen, as well as the smoke from the burning timbers had perceptibly diminished. A mass of burning timber on the canal bank threw an intense glare on the Genesee River below. A bit of blue sky was discernible on the western side, and the wind partially lift- ing the curtain of smoke revealed a blazing tower dazzling with fire. This was the central pier of the bridge, the top still wreathed in crimson smoke.
"A few minutes later it is again obscured-a little later still the curtain of smoke is once more lifted, the tower staggers, an- other roar and crash, now mingled with the explosion of burn- ing rocks, and the tower sinks down into the burning mass among the stone piers, and Portage bridge is a thing of the past.
"Ten minutes later might be seen the bare rock cliffs upon the west side. The whole outline of the valley stood in a black line against the smoke and flame. Nature in this fearful struggle had asserted herself and this vaunted achievement of man had been melted into ashes. Daylight revealed an inky basin at the base of the Upper Falls which had been discolored by the coals. The fall itself was amber tinted, and the river below flowed dark from discoloration of the burning masses that it had swept down. The chasm after the fire seems broader and deeper than before and, had we never seen the bridge, what now remains would appear an uncomprehensible ruin.
"In the Erie Railway Guide Book will be found a particular description of the bridge. It was commenced in the spring of 1851. The first engine passed over it on the 16th of August 1852. The great barbecue commemorating the completion of the bridge took place on the 24th of the same month.
"At four o'clock on the morning of the fire a slight rain was descending, owing to which we are spared the recording of other disasters as probably the pine groves and every building in the Glen Iris valley would have been destroyed, had the leaves of the woods and shingles of the buildings been dry. W.P.L."
A note following this account stated that Portage bridge was to be rebuilt at once, of iron instead of wood, and that the con- tract had already been let.
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A Paterson, N.J., firm was awarded the contract and expected to complete the new bridge in forty-five days, but in the midst of the construction the firm's plant burned down, and eighty- five days were required. In the meantime, the Warsaw Omnibus Company was carrying passengers across the river via Portage- ville.
It was reported at the time that the new bridge would be wide enough to include a carriage road and that Mr. Letchworth had subscribed $10,000 for the purpose. The report might have had some foundation but the contract was let too soon to provide for such plans and even though Mr. Letchworth wanted such a road, he felt $10,000 was more than he could give. There was to be a footpath across the top but no walks on the lower levels of the new bridge as there had been on the old one.
The piers of the wooden bridge had not been seriously dam- aged, so every other one was removed and the remaining piers were capped with stone, four feet square at the top. Cast-iron plates were placed on top. On these the heavy iron towers were erected, each able to stand alone should the others fall. Upon the towers rested the superstructure of the bridge, ten spans of 50 feet each, two of 100 feet and one of 117 feet, a total length of 817 feet. The expansion of heat and cold was taken care of by the independence of the towers and by steel rollers placed upon the bedplate on the west side of the bridge, to permit the neces- sary play. The metal in this iron bridge was said to have weighed 1,300,000 pounds.
Many men were employed on the bridge construction, but none were injured while it was being built. During construction a riot which threatened serious results occurred among striking workmen, and rendered it necessary to apply to civic authorities of Livingston and Wyoming counties for aid in quelling it. A desperate encounter ensued in which several of the rioters were shot, two fatally, and it was not until the Big Tree Artillery of Geneseo were summoned to the scene that the outbreak was quelled.
Sightseers flocked to the site to watch construction. The rail- road ran excursions from Buffalo until the contractors decided there was too much danger to crowds of curious people, and spectators were barred.
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THE UPPER FALLS
The first engine crossed the bridge on July 31, 1875. Travel- ling from east to west, it crept slowly across and then returned, coupled to a second engine and so on, until the final test of six engines. As they halted over each span, the amount of deflection was measured and found to be less than five eighths of an inch. The engines were gaily decked with flags, and salutes were fired amid cheers for the railroad and its contractors and builders. After running backward and forward at different rates of speed, the engines departed, and the Erie once again had a bridge open to travel.
In February, 1881, the Erie Railroad Company bought five hundred carloads of stone to strengthen the abutments of the bridge because of continued battering from ice and action of the elements. An article in the Buffalo Express stated that during the summer of 1881, the bed of the river as well as the rocky face of the falls had been covered with a coating of beton coignot, a mixture composed of sand and cement, purified and mixed with water to the point of saturation. The face of the falls was first encased in a wooden mould overlying the whole brink and distant from the vertical ledge about three feet. The cement was gradually introduced between the framework and the ledge by wooden spouts.
The cement was thoroughly impacted by means of rammers, and stones of suitable shape, laid in courses, were introduced, but not in close bond, thus allowing the cement to thoroughly per- meate the whose mass. The work was put on in broken courses and a perfect joint at all times was maintained. The vertical face of the river bed having thus been treated, the work was extended upon the overlying horizontal river bed and under the bridge. The piers were also mined from below and a compact mass of cement was introduced. This finished, the face of the piers was coated, encasing them throughout in a one-foot thickness of the beton coignot.
In the accomplishment of the great work some thousands of barrels of cement and carloads of sand were used. It is pro- nounced by eminent engineers to be a splendid piece of work, being the first of the kind ever attempted under the same cir- cumstances and conditions. Fears had been entertained that the Upper Falls of the Genesee River, directly below, which were
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GENESEE ECHOES
rapidly receding towards the bridge, would ultimately cause the piers to be undermined. In the thirty years since the bridge was first built, the retrocession of the falls at this point measured 274 feet. Had it not been protected, heroic treatment would soon have been required to prevent the fall of the great bridge. Today it is in better repair than ever and bids fair to last for ages. A series of electric signals records the speed of trains by means of vibration. The bridge has long been referred to as the "spider web span."
CHAPTER IV
THE MIDDLE FALLS
THE EARLY history of the Middle Falls area must be pieced together from bits in scrapbooks and tales related by onetime old settlers to their young folks. From these bits we can say that the first settlement in the Glen about the Middle Falls was made by Alvah Palmer in 1821. He was a strong, vigorous man, then twenty-seven years old, and his wife was just twenty-one. He purchased a mill power at the Falls for the purpose of building a sawmill. The first attempt to develop power was by excavating a raceway from the brink of the fall to a point some distance upstream. The breaking up of the rock was attempted by drop- ping a 96-pound iron ball from a considerable height. Powder was high in price and scarce, so was not used much. This crude attempt failed, and the river was finally dammed a little above the Middle Falls. The sawmill was running prior to 1824. Later a wooden bridge was built across below the dam. Both the bridge and the dam were in existence for some time after Mr. Letch- worth acquired the land.
The original sawmill was carried away by a flood and was replaced by a more ambitious lumbering plant, which included a set of gang saws, a planing mill, and a sash and blind factory, all of which had been pursuing their attack on the neighboring forests.
As Mr. Letchworth first saw the Glen, there was no planing mill and no accompanying factory to aggravate the sawmill's offensiveness. They had been burned on the twenty-third of January, 1858.
On the terrace above the Middle Falls, Mr. Palmer built a small log house, now the site of Glen Iris Inn. The house has been described as having a door in the side and a large fireplace at one end. The hearthstone was a huge stone taken from the river. The backlog for the fireplace was customarily drawn in
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GENESEE ECHOES
by a horse and rolled to its place. Later a large two-story frame dwelling was built on the same site. It was finally opened as a temperance tavern for the picnic parties and summer visitors from neighboring towns who came to view the Falls. It was Alvah Palmer who built the frame house, which, it is thought, became the library of the later Glen Iris mansion.
It was all wilderness when the Palmers first came to the Glen. Alvah and his brother Truman built the first dam there. The frame of their mill was not carried away by the great flood. Later a man whose name is believed to have been Burgess built a mill below the Palmer mill. Then Benjamin Wheeler came into that section.
The mill dam created a long pond between the two waterfalls on which was placed a large boat. A ferryboat was used for crossings until the bridge was built. Such attractions had been discontinued when Mr. Letchworth acquired his property.
Hard times were experienced in the early days of lumbering. Lumber sawed into boards was drawn from Mr. Palmer's mill to Pike and sold for as little as $5.00 per thousand. Farm products also were cheap, oats selling for ten cents per bushel delivered at Pike. It was difficult for people to pay their taxes. Mr. Palmer was one who suffered severely from such conditions. He told one creditor that he had nothing but his boots with which to pay a $3.50 debt. The creditor said he would take them and Mr. Pal- mer removed the boots and handed them over.
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