4 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^^o 
 
 .^; .^^ 
 
 

 
 <j5°* 
 
 -bv" 
 
 ^°-n^. 
 
 
 
 .-•^°- --^ 
 
HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 7d 
 
 O F 
 
 STEUBEI COUITY, N. Y. 
 
 INCLUDING NOTICES OF THE OLD PIONEER SETTLERS 
 AND THEIR ADVENTURES. 
 
 BY GUY H. Mc MASTER. 
 
 3Satf) 
 
 °f 't^ASH 
 
 
 R. S. UNDERHILL <fe 00. 
 1853» 
 
Ti^ai/ajTiaa am 10 Ysmm 
 
 >ra"- 
 
 
 WM. C. BRYANT k CO., PRINTERS, N. Y. 
 
 V*a,^ 
 
 S^'v^ 
 
/^ 
 
 PREFACE. °!;^ 
 
 TfiB cotkctibti of tlie following annals was undertaken at' 
 the request of the publishers of this volume. While of course 
 it was not expected that the general public would feel anj 
 interest in the subject of the work, it was yet believed that to 
 the citizens of Steuben CJounty a chronicle of its settlement 
 would possess some value. The task was entered upon, not 
 without misgivings that the historic materials to be found in a 
 backwoods county, destitute of colonial and revolutionary re- 
 miniscence, and possessing an antiquity of at most seventy 
 years beyond which there was nothing even to be guessed at, 
 would prove rather scanty ; and, while it cannot be pretended ' 
 that the vein has been found richer than it promised, it is 
 nevertheless hoped that something- of int^e^tto citizens of the 
 county has been rescued from the forgetfulness into which 
 the annals of the settlement were fast passing. 
 
 All the facts set forth in the pages ensuing, except those 
 for which credit is given to other sources, were collected by 
 the Editor of the volume, by personal inquiry in most cases, 
 from the surviving pioneers of the county. He has been 
 unable to enrich his collection by any ancient documentary 
 matter — letters, diaries or memoranda. The early history of 
 the county rested in the memory of the few pioneers who are 
 living, and in the traditions handed down by those who are 
 departed. The appearance of Mr. O. Turner's timely His- 
 tory of " Phelps and Gorham's Purchase," after this work was 
 prepared for the press, has enabled the editor to correct the 
 results of his own inquiries in several important instances. 
 
IV 
 
 Those whose memory extends to the period of the settle- 
 ment, will find this but an unsatisfactory chronicle of the old 
 time. Individuals who merit notice as early settles of the 
 county have probably been passed over unnoticed ; many 
 facts of interest and importance have doubtless escaped the 
 researches of the editor, and serious inaccuracies will undoubt- 
 edly be discovered in the statements recorded. A fair degree 
 of diligence in searching for facts, and a sincere desire to pre- 
 serve honorable among those who shall hereafter inhabit this 
 county, the memory of those plain, hardy and free-hearted 
 men who first broke into its original wilderness and by the 
 work of their own hands began to make it what it now is, are 
 all that can be offered in extenuation of the meagreness of 
 the results of the editor's labors. The collection should have 
 been made twenty years ago. Many pioneers of note — men 
 of adventure, of observation and of rare powers of narration, 
 have o'one from among the living since that time. Much of 
 valuable and entertaining reminiscence has perished with 
 them. 
 
 It is well enough, perhaps, to add in explanation of vaga- 
 ries of divers descriptions which may be encountered in the 
 following pages, and for which the reader may be at a loss to 
 account, that this volume was written nearly two years ago, 
 and at a period of hfe when such a lapse of time happily 
 brings great changes of taste and feeling. 
 
 The editor takes pleasure in acknowledging his obligations 
 to citizens in various parts of the county to whom he had 
 occasion to apply in the course of his inquiries, for the readi- 
 ness with which he has in all cases been assisted in the pro- 
 secution of his researches. 
 
 Bath, i>ec. 1852. 
 
3 
 
 county, while the southern extension of its valley pierces 
 through to the Conhocton and forms, by its junction with the 
 channel of that river, the broad and pleasant valley of Bath. 
 But few streams, however, have been carried captive by this 
 great robber to the shivering seas of Labrador. Two or three 
 unfortunate brooks are compelled to send thither their unwil- 
 ling waters ; and, aside from these resources, it subsists upon 
 secret springs and the rains that fall upon the bluffs and pour 
 into the lake by a thousand short ravines or gutters. 
 
 The hills of Steuben county are irregular blocks cut out of 
 a plateau of clay, rock and gravel, by the action of the ele- 
 ments. Of the forces and elements by the action of which 
 this original plateau was created, and of the later forces which 
 afterwards hewed it into its present form — forms like those of 
 a block of ice shattered by the blow of a hammer — we have 
 a singular account from men of science. 
 
 That the regions we now occupy, and indeed this whole 
 western region, even to the Cordilleras (or rather the founda- 
 tions upon which they are built,) were, in time past, at the 
 bottom of a vast ocean ; that certain continents which in the 
 earliest ages sat in the East, were broken up violently by con- 
 vulsions of nature, or were gradually dissolved by forces mild- 
 er than the arms of those rude slaves dwelling under the 
 earth which are of old reported by Geologists to have over- 
 turned mountains, and cloven in twain fast anchored islands, 
 and that the currents of the ocean flowing like steady rivers 
 towards the setting sun, were laden with the dust of conti- 
 nents thus destroyed, and strewed it over the submerged 
 plains of the West ; that after these rivers of the ocean had 
 labored silently and without ceasing for many ages, the whole 
 bed of the Western deep was covered to the depth of many 
 thousand feet with the materials of which the ancient East- 
 
ern world was built, till at length peaks, then islands, then 
 a new continent, appeared upon the face of the globe, while 
 the waters by many channels ran down into the vast hollow 
 of the uprooted continent to form a new ocean : — all these 
 thing's State Geologists seem to beheve established — or at 
 least they feel at liberty to surmise substantially to this 
 effect. 
 
 Further than this, we are invited to see the builders at their 
 secret labors. Sluggish rivers of mud roll through the deep 
 like enormous serpents, and waste themselves before they 
 reach the valley of the Mississippi. Brighter torrents of sand 
 following spread a gay carpet over the brackish trail of the 
 mud-snake : then streams of pebble and shattered rock and 
 of all the powders of an abraded world deposit, now Niagara 
 Groups, now Chemung Groups, or when stirred by tempests 
 and water-spouts settle into coarse conglomerate. We are 
 shown, also, periods of a wonderful life. Millions of those 
 briUiant " shells and crinoideans and crustaceans," whose fan- 
 tastic images are stamped upon the rocks, dwelt in numberless 
 nations among the waters, while those hideous monsters 
 whose names were only less formidable than themselves, 
 prowled through the depths below, or floundered in elephan- 
 tine antics among the billows above. Once a part of the floor 
 of the ocean, which seems to have been the roof of a cavern 
 occupied by certain " secret black and midnight" powers, sinks 
 downward, arouses the horrible Pluto of Mud from his slum- 
 bers in bottomless volcanoes, who, rising in towering anger 
 through the rafters of his broken house, overwhelms coral 
 forests, the empires of the gorgeous fossil tribes, and all the 
 beautiful mansions of the deep with a tremendous flood of 
 mire. Other atrocious giants come forth from the volcanic 
 furnaces into which the waters have fallen, and heat the ocean 
 
■with spouts of steam, while certain angry chemists, drenched 
 in their subterranean laboratories by the sudden inundation 
 of brine, let loose their most poisonous gasses, and catching 
 the unfortunate nymphs, dose them with deadly physic. All 
 creatures perish. Even the gigantic and roaring monsters, 
 choked with mud and suffocated by the poisons that rise 
 from the reservoirs of death below, flounder in dying agonies. 
 Their carcases are drifted to and fro for a time, and thousands 
 of years afterwards, men digging in mines lay bare their huge 
 white jaws and their mighty shanks, and fasten up their skele- 
 tons with wire in National Museums. All these, and many 
 other strange things, showing how at last the region we in- 
 habit was built, we see, from the happily settled times of the 
 present, into the troubled times far away — times truly of "agi- 
 tation and fanaticism." 
 
 Let us now leave greater speculations, and look homeward. 
 That tract of land now occupied by the five western counties 
 of New York in the southern tier, appeared above the 
 waters in the form of a regular plateau with a mean elevation 
 of two thousand feet above the level of the present ocean, 
 overlooking the sea which covered the northern counties, the 
 Canadas, and the Great Western Valley. The detritus from 
 which this plateau was constructed, had ripened into a series 
 of shales, flagstones and sandstones, which from the difler- 
 ence of the organic remains of the upper and lower ledges, 
 have been divided by geologists into two groups, — the upper 
 or Chemung group, and the lower or Portage group. The 
 maps represent these as first appearing near Chenango 
 County in this State, thence running westwards through the 
 southern counties, with a breadth of some fifty miles, and a 
 thickness of about 2500 feet, thence continuing along the 
 shore of Lake Erie, and toward the western extremity of that 
 2* 
 
 r 
 
6 
 
 •lake, making a bold curve southward. Their course, however, 
 appears not to have been carefully followed in their wander- 
 ings toward the fer west; for we hear of them as being 
 *' probably" in Indiana, in reduced circumstances, with a 
 thickness of less than 400 feet. 
 
 But this matters not at present. We are shown then at 
 the period of our deliverance from the deep, a fine plateau, 
 extending from Lake Erie far toward the east, and from the 
 foot of the Pennsylvanian mountains northward about sixty 
 miles, to a great bay of the ocean. How did this become a 
 labyrinth of hills ? The waters that fell from the clouds, or 
 that issued from the grounds wandered this way and that, 
 under the guidance of their restless instincts seeking the 
 ocean. Many combining, formed rivers, and furrowed for 
 themselves deep and curving valleys ; the creeks conquered 
 crooked but triumphant passages through ledges of sand 
 stone, and beds of shale, wearing their channels by indus- 
 trious labor through many centuries ; while the brooks, the 
 runnels, the spring torrents, and all those lesser hydraulic 
 tribes, slashed the fair table land in all directions with gorges 
 and ravines. 
 
 Work like this would have hewn the plateau into abrupt 
 blocks. It would have left a multitude of isolated and inac- 
 cessible tables, islands di^dded by perpendicular gulfs. Neither 
 man nor beast could have ascended to the uplands. The 
 river valleys would have been broad halls enclosed by walls 
 of rock : and the lumberman roving up the beds of the tri- 
 butary streams, would find himself involved in hopeless 
 defiles, with precipices jutting forth on either side, while 
 hundreds of feet above his head the pine and the fir swayed 
 their princely plumes in derision, like savage kings jeering 
 the Spaniard from inaccessible cliffs. 
 
But observe how tlie judicious elements, with rude and 
 ungeometrical but kindly labor, prepared the new made region 
 to be a habitation for man. The frosts with powerful wedges 
 ijracked the precipitous bluffs, or with mighty hammers, as it 
 would seem, shivered to atoms rocky pyramids. The rains 
 rounded the edges of the cliffs, here pushing off great masses 
 of earth, there sweeping loosened ledges into the ravines, 
 while the invisible powers of the air working many cen- 
 turies with those more boisterous slaves, which hollowed 
 the water courses and broke up the rocks, wrought at 
 length the rolHng ridges, the broad knobs, the blunt 
 promontories, and all the curiously designed mountain- 
 figures that now cover the land. The w-ork was thus made 
 perfect. Forests cover the hills, and republicans coming after 
 many days with plows and axes, find a land made ready for 
 them. After many days, too, civil-engineers, with their glass- 
 es and brazen instruments, appear at the foot of the ridge 
 di^^ding the Susquehanna from the Genesee, and find that 
 the rivers and industrious brooks have been laboring at this 
 gravel rampart for many thousand years, guided, indeed, by 
 very rude trigonometry, hired by no pledge of pubHc stocks 
 and undisturbed by loans or rumors of loans, but have yet 
 done the labor of myriads of minei-s, and have pierced the 
 ridge with such admirable cuts, that the locomotive, instead 
 of dragging its weary wheels up an abrupt ascent of fifteen 
 hundred feet, winds swiftly through mountain halls, (at the 
 risk, it is true, after the equinoctial rains, of encountering in 
 certain places, a sliding hill-top or an avalanche of cobble- 
 stones, which is quite alpine but unpleasant,) ever finding a 
 gorge cloven through the broad bulwarks that seem to bar 
 the valley ; ever finding some crooked but deep defile through 
 the bristling promontories that crowd together as if expressly 
 for the discouragement of railroad directors. 
 
It will be remembered that at the deliverance of Steuben 
 county, with its four western neighbors, from the water, a 
 large tract of land in the North, which is now high and dry, 
 was lying under the sea. This sea lost life rapidly, and bled 
 to death as it were through many wounds. Until its level 
 sank below the level of the upper valley of the Canistes, the 
 channel of that river was one of the passages through which 
 it was drained. The torrent that ran roaring through the 
 hills when supplied from such a reservoir was a powerful one ; 
 but since that has failed, the river has shrunk to very mode- 
 rate dimensions, and now subsists upon the scanty charities 
 of the mountain springs. Similar rivers probably flowed 
 through many of the southwardly inclining valleys and cov- 
 ered them with " northern drift." 
 
 In descending to details, the prospect is quite dishearten- 
 ing. We are mortified to confess that our county is destitute 
 of volcanoes. We have not so much as a Geyser. Of sco- 
 riae and moonstones there is an utter deficiency ; and as for 
 trap-rock there is not an ounce of it between Tyrone and 
 Troupsburgh. The true patriot will, however, hear with 
 pride, that fucaides are tolerably abundant, and his ecstacy 
 will with difficulty be suppressed when he learns not only 
 that here was once the abode of the Holoptychus and the 
 Goniatites Acostatus, but that here we find the rehcs of the 
 Astrypa Hystrix and the Ungulina Suborbicularis^ and of 
 other eccentric aborigines which nibbled sea-weed on our na- 
 tive hills in ages past, when Saturn was but Crown Prince. 
 It is consoling also to remember that the tooth of a mam- 
 moth was once found under the bed of one of our central 
 mill-ponds ; reasoning from which fact, he is a bold man who 
 will dare to deny that the broad-horned mastodon once bel- 
 lowed through these gorges, and that here the gigantic ante- 
 
9 
 
 diluvian transfixed the monster with his iron javelin ! It 
 must be confessed, however, that the State Geologists are 
 silent with regard to antediluvian sportsmen. It will be with 
 intense satisfaction that the sincere patriot meets upon the 
 hills of Troupsburgh and Greenwood the airiest localities in 
 the country, being 2,500 feet above the sea, that venerable 
 and most worthy patriarch among the rocks of the earth, 
 Old Ked Sandstone. " Here the rock consists of a thin layer 
 of argillaceous sandstone, highly ferruginous in character, 
 and beaiing a general resemblance to the iron ore of the 
 Chnton Group. Its decomposition stains the soil a bright 
 red color, and from these indications it has been supposed 
 that valuable beds of ore would be found. It is extremely 
 doubtful, however, whether this stratum will ever prove of 
 any importance as an iron ore." — [State Geol. Rep?j 
 
 Rocks of the Portage Group " appear in all the deep ra- 
 vines and along the water courses in the northern part of the 
 county, while the high grounds are occupied with those of 
 the next group. ******* 
 
 At Hammondsport, in the ravine above Mallory's Mill, we find 
 about three hundred feet of rock exposed belonging to the 
 Portage Group ; they are well characterized by the forcoides 
 graphica. The mass exposed consists in the lower part pnn- 
 cipally of shale and thin layers of sandstone, and at a higher 
 point numerous layers of sandstone from four to ten inches 
 thick. The edges of all the layers exposed are covered with 
 crystals of selenite or crystallized gypsum. About one mile 
 from the mouth of this ravine an excavation for coal has been 
 made in the black shale which alternates with the sandstone 
 and olive shale. The indications of coal at this point were a 
 few fragments of vegetables, iron pyrites, and the odor of bitu- 
 men arising from the shale. The work is at present aban- 
 
10 
 
 doned until some new excitement, or reported exhibition 
 of bm-ning gas shall induce others to engage in the enter- 
 T)rise ********* 
 One mile north of Bath there is a stratum of very tough ar- 
 gillo-calcareous rock three feet thick. This furnishes some of 
 the finest building and foundation stone, and should be of 
 such a quality as to receive a fine polish, it will be a valuable 
 acquisition to the mineral wealth of the county. * * 
 
 The rocks of the Chemung group continue along the valley 
 of the Conhocton to Painted Post and as far the Tioga as 
 the south fine of the State, the tops of the high hills ex- 
 cepted, which are capped by conglomerate in a few places. 
 The valley of the Canistes is bounded on both sides by al- 
 most unbroken ranges of rock of the same group. The same 
 rocks are seen along the valley of the Five Mill Creek which 
 appears to have been formerly a continuation of the Canan- 
 daigua Lake Valley. ****** 
 
 The valley of Loon Lake is the continuation of Hemlock 
 Lake and Springwater Valleys. In the neighborhood of the 
 lake large accumulations of drift, arise in rounded hills fifty or 
 sixty feet above the general level, and skirt the valley on 
 either side. * * * * *.* * * 
 The country known as Howard Flats is formed of drift 
 hills and ridges, but little elevated above the general level. I 
 could not ascertain the depth of the drift, but the deepest 
 wells do not reach its termination. * * * * 
 
 Sandstone proper for grindstones are found along Bennett's 
 and Rigg's creeks. "^ * * * * * * 
 This place is about four hundred and five hundred feet above 
 the Canistes and fifteen hundred feet above tide water. The 
 source of Bennet's creek is about eight hundred feet above 
 the Canistes. Grindstones are obtained in Canistes on the 
 
11 
 
 land of Mr. Carter ; in WoodhuU, on the land of Wm. 
 Stroud, Esq., and elsewhere in Jasper, on the land of Col. 
 Towsley. And sandstone is quarried on the land of Mr. 
 Marshall, near Lagrange, which is used for hearthstones, 
 tombstones, etc. On the land of Mr. Davis, at Lagrange, a 
 salt spring rises in the green shale. Several years since salt 
 was made at this place and previously by the Indians. * * 
 There are numerous beds of lake marl and tufa in this coun- 
 ty. Near Arkport there is a bed of this kind which furnishes 
 a considerable quantity of lime. In the town of Troups- 
 burgh there is a bed of this marl. There is an extensive de- 
 posit on the Canesaraga, south of Danville, from which lime 
 is burned. The summit level between this creek and the 
 Canisteo presents an extensive muck swamp, and some beds 
 of marl but their extent has not been ascertained." (State 
 Geol. Rep.) 
 
 "We add the elevations of a tew points above tide w^ater : 
 Seneca Lake, 447 feet; Mud Lake, 1,111 feet; summit be- 
 tween these lakes, 1,644 feet ; Village of Bath, 1,090 feet ; 
 summit between Mud Lake and Bath, 15t9; Arkport, 1194 ; 
 summit between Bath and Arkport, 1840 ; summit betw^een 
 Arkport and Angehca, 2,062 ; Troupsburgh Hills, 2,500 ; 
 Corning, 925 ; Hornellsville, 1,150 ; Crooked Lake, 718. 
 
 Note. — The Mastodon's tooth alluded to above was dug from a bed of 
 blue clay near the steam saw-mill of Mr. George Mitchell, in the Gulf 
 Koad between Bath and Wheeler, It is eight or ten inches in length. A 
 large bone was disinterred at the same place which crumbled on exposure 
 to the air. Further examination will doubtless disclose other grinders of 
 this huge beast and perhaps a pair of those broad tusks, curving outward- 
 ly at the points, somewhat like scythes, which adorn the heads of its 
 brethren found elsewhere, and with which one good able bodied fellow, 
 sweeping his head to and fro in wrath, might mow down an army of an- 
 tagonists like meadow grass. 
 
n 
 
 The bed of clay in which the tooth was found is of unusual depth and 
 tenacity, and it is guessed that the animal of which the said bone was an 
 appurtenance while rambling through the gulf, indiscreetly bounced into 
 the mire and was unable to disengage his ponderous feet. It is further 
 surmised that the bears may have pulled his skull around after death but 
 that the frame of his body remains where he mired. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF STEUBEN COUNTY, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY HISTORY AND PURCHASE. 
 
 The early History of Steuben County cannot be a 
 record of events which are called great. The chop- 
 ping of forests, the building of cabins, the founding of 
 settlements, and the gradual subjugation of a most 
 stubborn wilderness, are the only matters which can 
 engage the attention of the chronicler. The events to 
 be recounte<i are neither tragic nor terrible ; the trou- 
 bles to be told are far from overwhelming ; the mys- 
 teries are not mysterious, the disasters are not disas- 
 trous. No battle has ever been fought within these 
 boundaries. These hills have not, within the memory 
 of man, spouted fire or been shaken by an earthquake. 
 No carved stones or rusty weapons have been found in 
 the vallies which would indicate that this county was 
 in past ages aught more than an abiding place of wild 
 beasts and a hunting ground for barbarians. And yet, 
 notwithstanding the dearth of noisy heroism in our 
 3 
 
14 
 
 county's annals, it may be avered that its citizens 
 have accomplished, in the last sixty years, that which 
 they may honestly be proud of, and that the work which 
 they have done in the woods has proved them to be 
 stout-hearted, and strong-handed men. 
 
 The record of events, previous to the settlement of 
 the valley of the Chemung by American backwoods- 
 men, must be but brief and unsatisfactory. Beginning 
 our investigations at the earliest times when Eastern 
 nations are believed to have caught glimpses of a West- 
 ern world, no evidence can be found to warrant a be- 
 lief that those ancient rovers, who are declared by the 
 learned to have visited the American shores before Co- 
 lumbus, ever strayed to that rugged region over which 
 the supervisors of Steuben county now wave their demo- 
 cratic sceptres. The Phoenicians undoubtedly lived 
 and died in ignorance of Loon Lake. No more traces 
 are to be found of Madoc the Welshman than of Esau 
 the Edomite. Biorn, the Northman, it is to be feared, 
 never planted his Scandinarian heel upon our river- 
 flats, and no rams-horns have been found in the clefts 
 of the rocks which by possibility may have been blown 
 by the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. 
 
 Of those interesting relics of the ancient empires of 
 the continent, which are digged from the earth of the 
 northern counties of our state, this county is utterly 
 destitute. Mounds which may have been the tombs 
 of kings coeval with Agamemnon ; battlements upon 
 which princes greater than Cyrus, and captains migh- 
 tier than Hannibal, may have stalked ; javelins of 
 stranger fashion than the harpoons of the Argonauts ; 
 
15 
 
 graven images, suspected to have been cousins to Da- 
 gon of the Philistines ; swords and truncheons of gigantic 
 cavaliers ; and other strange relics of exterminated na- 
 tions which Oswego, Onondaga and Genesee give up 
 to the chronicler, are not found here. The farmer, it 
 is true, may sometimes lay open with his plow the 
 trench where lie the mouldering bones and the rust- 
 eaten hatchet of one of those red consuls" whose whoop- 
 ing legionaries fired the wigwams of the Catawbas in 
 the far South, or saluted from Illinois bluffs the Father 
 of Waters : but as for antediluvians or grants, whose 
 skeletons occasionally turn up in the fortunate coun- 
 ties of the North, not one of those venerable pioneers 
 to our knowledge, reposes on these Southern river-sides. 
 Relinquishing, then, all hope of enriching these 
 pages with extracts from the legers of Phoenician tra- 
 ders, the tax rolls of Israelitish colonists, the diaries 
 of Welsh wanderers, or the log-books of Danish Pirates; 
 and refraining from all discussion of the quality of the 
 tenancy of those ancient settlers whose titles, if any they 
 ever had, were long since extinguished, and who are 
 not likely to set up claims against the grantees of 
 Phelps and Gorham, all matters that transpired, or 
 that may have transpired before the voyage of Colum- 
 bus, may be dismissed without comment or conjecture. 
 From the time of that event down to the period of the 
 actual invasion of our country by the backwoodsmen? 
 near the close of the last century, a faint light, hardly 
 more satisfactory than the total darkness of previous 
 time, rested upon our forests, but in searching for tan- 
 
16 
 
 gible facts, the Historian meets only chagrin and dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 At the time of the discovery, this region, with a 
 large and indefinite territory, now comprising portions 
 of several states, constituted the domain of the Five 
 Nations, a fierce and crafty people, eloquent sometimes, 
 and of proud bearing, the " Romans of the West," as 
 some call them. For many years after the anchors of 
 the discoverers first sank in the bays of the new found 
 continent, these wild warriors dwelt in their Long-House 
 unmolested by the Europeans who sought the Western 
 world. The councillors of their dreaded league met 
 for conference at Genesee or Onondaga castles ; their 
 armies marched from the Mohawk to the Miami, and 
 there was none to dispute their supremacy over the 
 magnificent forests of which their arms had made them 
 the masters. But in a century and a half new com- 
 motions began to agitate the wilderness. Enemies 
 more formidable than the Huron or the Algonquin, en- 
 camped on the borders of the domain of the Iroquois. 
 The drums of England were heard in the South, and 
 the bugles of France in the North. Britons stood girt 
 for battle behind the windmills of Manhattan and the 
 palisades of Albany, while Gauls from the ramparts 
 of Quebec, looked off over broad forests and wonderful 
 valleys towards the Gulf of Mexico, and awaited the 
 beginning of a contest which was to determine the des- 
 tiny of a continent. 
 
 The silence, which had for centuries pervaded the 
 wilderness, was broken, and the chronicler may be rea- 
 sonably required to gather from the battles, plots and 
 
1*^ 
 
 treaties "which ensued upon the meeting of these antag- 
 onists, some thing which may be fairly claimed as part 
 of the history of these ancient valleys. In the varied 
 triumphs and disasters ^Yhich diversified the long pro- 
 tracted struggle of French, English, and Iroquois, it 
 may rightfully demand of the annalist that he find 
 some event in the history of these hemlock ravines over 
 which rhetoric may rave, research puzzle, or poetry 
 whimper. 
 
 But the conscientious chronicler will be compelled 
 to disappoint public expectation. As the clouds will 
 sometimes roll up black and thunderous in the West, 
 so that cattle fly from the fields, and prudent towns- 
 men inspect their lightning rods, and after all the 
 storm drifts towards the North, and rains floods, and 
 flings thunderbolts in our very sight : so did the great 
 political tempest of colonial times rain itself dry along 
 the shores of Ontario and the St. Lawrence, while our 
 own ill-starred mountains parched. From the day 
 when Champlain, the voyager, fired under the bluff's of 
 Ticonderoga the first musket volley that disturbed the 
 forests of the Six Nations, down through a period of 
 one hundred and sixty years, more than a half dozen 
 armies, of a wild and picturesque composition, in- 
 vaded, encamped, fought, and besieged, almost within 
 sight of the Northern townships of this county, but 
 had not the charity to fire so much as a pistol over its 
 borders. Montcalm's bugles and Bradstreet's drums 
 sounded through the neighboring groves. Provincial 
 rangers and Britons, French chevaliers and feathered 
 sachems filed along the Ontario trails. There were 
 3* 
 
18 
 
 treaties, alliances, plots and conventions. There was 
 also occasional oratory — as for example, the speech of 
 Garanguala to De La Barre, the Canadian Governor, 
 a masterpiece of daring and picturesque irony. Can- 
 nonading at Niagara, at Oswego, at Frontenac, star- 
 tled the wilderness. Yet, though all this fine tumult 
 disturbed the secluded courts of the Long House, not 
 even rumors of wars agitated the valleys of the Con- 
 hocton and Tioga. It may be said that during the 
 long contest for the rich plains and noble lakes of 
 Western New York, our old hills sat quietly apart, 
 like the camels of a captured caravan, while two hos- 
 tile bands of robbers quarrelled for the booty. 
 
 We gain, however, a single glimpse of the ancient 
 time, which is of some interest, as revealing to our 
 view the first communication of this country with the 
 civilized world. Two centuries ago the still streams 
 and the outlets of our lakes were alive with beaver. 
 Many a harmonious phalanx of these sagacious little 
 socialists revelled in undisturbed ponds, where they 
 had lived generation after generation since the flood, 
 and busied themselves with the building of dams and 
 other industrial pursuits, with none to molest or make 
 afraid. At length, however, remorseless Dutch tra- 
 ders established themselves at Albany, and combining 
 with French merchants in the forts of Canada, laid 
 foul plots against these tranquil republics, tempting 
 the barbarians with bells and bright knives to begin 
 the work of destruction. So presently the red hunts- 
 men might have been seen skulking through the wil- 
 lows that overhung the creeks, and setting snares for 
 
19 
 
 the feet of the honest and unsuspecting beaver. Hun- 
 dreds of these poor creatures suddenly found them- 
 selves bereft of their fur, and long-limbed savages, 
 laden with ill-got plunder, hurried through the 
 forests to the forts of the rapacious traders. Thus 
 the first demand of the aristocracy of Europe upon 
 our county was for the hides of its citizens — a very 
 singular request, and one which the indignant repub- 
 lican will remember in connection with the tribute paid 
 at this day to the Royalty of Hanover. 
 
 A little more than a century after the massacre of 
 the beaver, the Revolutionary war was raging through 
 the land. Here again the Historic Muse displayed 
 her ungraciousness, and refused to refresh our parch- 
 ing chronicles with a single skirmish. While the 
 whole neighborhood in the North, East, and South, 
 was. alive with rangers and Indians, and rang daily 
 with conflicts, scalpings, and burnings, silence of the 
 grave reigned in our slumbering forests. The utmost 
 that can be said for our county in setting up a revo- 
 lutionary claim for it is, that it was sometimes a place 
 of preparation for the ferocious allies of Great Britain 
 before their attacks on the frontiers, and a place of 
 retreat after the slaughter. The utmost border settle- 
 ments of our countrymen at that time in the States of 
 New York and Pennsylvania were in the upper valley 
 of the Mohawk, on the head waters of the Susque- 
 hanna, west of the Catskills, in the Wyoming coun- 
 try, and on the west Branch of the Susquehanna. 
 Down the valleys of the Conhocton, Canisteo, and 
 Chemung, and up the valley of the Tioga, ran the 
 
20 
 
 trails by which sometimes the Tories and Indians stole 
 upon the settlements in Pennsylvania from Fort Nia- 
 gara, and by which again their bands, like hounds re- 
 turning from the hunt, hurried to that notorious old 
 kennel to be fed by their keepers. 
 
 Hardly a fact, however, with regard to the move- 
 ments of our county's primitive citizens during the 
 war is preserved for us. An intrepid imagination 
 might do much toward filling this unfortunate blank in 
 our annals, but till such a one assumes the task, each 
 one must be content to make a Revolutionary History 
 for himself out of such hints as may lawfully be sug- 
 gested. Each must imagine as he can the wolfish fra- 
 ternity of Tories and Indians traversing the war-trails 
 of our wilderness. Hiakatoo, Little Beard, Brant, 
 and the Great Captains of the Six Nations holding 
 council under elm-trees by the Chemung — the British 
 officer, conspicuous with his sash and pistols, confer- 
 ring by moonlight with savage chieftains that lean on 
 their rifles, without the encampment, on the river 
 bank, where the wild warriors are sleeping — the occa- 
 sional squadron of canoes gliding down the swift 
 stream toward the farms below on the Susquehanna. 
 
 Now a file of barbarians descends the Canisteo trail 
 from the north, turns up the Tioga and disappears. 
 Soon their hatchets glitter afar off on the Laurel Ridge. 
 Next is heard at midnight the ringing of rifles on the 
 West Branch, and the shouting of the borderers 
 as the blaze of their cabins lights up thewooded 
 cliffs around. Strange processions sometimes strag- 
 gle up the vallies. Now the mongrel hounds of 
 
21 
 
 old Fort Niagara return from encounters with the for- 
 esters of Pennsylvania, shattered and discomfited ; 
 but again the marauders return with scalps dangling at 
 their belts, hurrying along captives, women and chil- 
 dren who grow weary and are tomahawked, and also 
 stout and weary woodsmen who must be bound and 
 watched lest they rise in the night and beat out the 
 brains of their captors. 
 
 In the midst of the war the first lumbermen of the 
 Canisteo may be seen on its upper waters hewing down 
 pine trees, and shaping them by fire and steel into 
 canoes. One would in vain search for the peers of that 
 savage gang among the boisterous raftmen who, in 
 modern day build their fleet in the eddies of that quiet 
 stream. When the work is done and the little galleys 
 are launched, what a lovely crew embarks ! The But- 
 lers with their merciless renegades, the chosen chiefs 
 of the Six Nations, the fiercest soldiers of the forest, 
 all with their war trapping and weapons ride in the 
 slender canoes down the stream — down through the si- 
 lent gorges, over the brawling rifts — then emerging 
 from island-groves of elm descend the strong Tioga, 
 then bending their long file into the Chemung, disappear 
 beyond our borders in that blue notch chosen for the 
 river's course in the hills below. This was the Armada 
 that bore the destroyers of Wyoming.* 
 
 * The canoes which earried a large party of Tories and Indians to 
 Wyoming in lYTS, were made on the Canisteo. At the settlement 
 of the upper valley of that river the trunks of trees, which proving 
 unfit for use had been abandoned after having been partially wrought, 
 with other traces of work, and some tools and weapons, were found 
 
22 
 
 Sullivan's two hundred barges move from Otsego 
 and Wilkesbarre to Newtown. His five thousand men 
 march northward through the wilderness, barely brush- 
 ing the edge of our county. We hear a great crack- 
 ling of villages on fire, of burning corn-stacks, and a 
 lively crashing of orchards and skirmishing of scouts, 
 but a few miles from our northern towns. That sin- 
 gular fatality however which marks our earliest history 
 forbids a scout to be tortured, a corporal to be scalped, 
 or even a pack-horse to be beheaded within the baili- 
 wick of our own Sheriff". A few adventurous boatmen, 
 however moved up the Chemung to see what land might, 
 lie on the upper branches of that unknown river.* 
 
 on the farm of Col. J. R. Stephens near Horuelsville. T]ie settlers 
 had tills fact also from the Indians. 
 
 * Gen. Sullivan, invaded the territory of the Six Nations in 17'79, 
 penetrated the midst of their forests, destroyed many of their vil- 
 lages, cut down their orchards, laid waste their cornfields, and inflict- 
 ed on these impracticable savages a portion of the miseries which 
 the frontiers had suffered from their hands during the previous years 
 of the war. The destruction of life, however, was but inconsidera- 
 ble. The Indians and Tories made a stand at Newtown, but were 
 summarily routed. The residue of the fighting in the campaign was 
 adjusted by scouting parties. 
 
 The traditions held by some that detachments of this army pene- 
 trated Steuben county, are probably without foundation. The oldest 
 settlers consulted in the preparation of this sketch (Capt. Woolcott 
 and Judge Knox of the town of Corning,) did not hear of the ru- 
 mored skirmish at the brook called " Bloody Run" in the old town of 
 Painted Post. At the time of the settlement, however, there were 
 painted trees near that stream where the Indians were said (or gues- 
 sed) to have tortured prisoners. Sullivan moved from Newtown, 
 (Elmira) to the head of the Seneca by the Horseheads (where he 
 
23 
 
 It appears, therefore, that Steuben County, from the 
 earliest ages to the close of the Revolutionary War, was 
 but a jungle of barbarism, without name and without 
 history. Invading whirlwinds sometimes crushed the 
 hemlocks of the hills in their courses, insurgent floods 
 sometimes poured through the defiles with a tumult 
 like the roar of a multitude, and the rival houses of 
 wolf and bear, enlivened the wilderness with civil 
 strife ; but concerning human onslaughts and insurrec- 
 tions, the chroniclers of the Six Nations are silent, 
 and the hope of recovering the memory of them must 
 be forever dismissed. It remains, then, only to consi- 
 der how the race which broke into these solitudes after 
 the Revolution acquired their title to the same, and 
 how they accomplished the great work which this day 
 beholds performed. 
 
 The freeholders of Steuben County generally derive 
 their titles from Sir William Pulteney, of England, 
 and his heirs. Sir William acquired his title from 
 Robert Morris, Morris from Phelps and Gorham, the 
 latter from the State of Massachusetts, and that com- 
 monwealth held under the Royal Charter of James I, 
 King of Great Britain. How King James became the 
 proprietor of this tract of land, it would not be easy to 
 say, unless we adopt the presumption which the law 
 sometimes establishes in cases of unaccountable pos- 
 
 killed a large number of pack-horses,) thence between the lakes to 
 the outlet, thence to the Genesee, and returned by the same route. 
 There is nothing in the official report of the General, or in the pub- 
 lished journals of officers accompanying the expedition, to support 
 the traditions alluded to. 
 
24 
 
 session of chattels, and aver that he " casually found 
 it." 
 
 The grants of the colonies of Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut, comprised vast tracts of land extending 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, including large 
 portions of the present States of New York and Penn- 
 sylvania. The latter provinces loudly denied the 
 validity of the royal grants, so far as they affected the 
 territory within their boundaries, as at present settled, 
 and the controversy arising from the claims of their 
 sister provinces, was a fruitful source of correspond- 
 ence and worse, between the rival claimants. In Penn- 
 sylvania it proceeded to blows. Colonists from Connec- 
 ticut established themselves in the famous valley of 
 Wyoming, and resisted with arms the edicts of the As- 
 sembly and the officers of the high courts of the latter 
 commonwealth. Heads were bruised, bones broken, 
 crops destroyed, settlements plundered, and even lives 
 lost, and the peace of the Susquehanna Valley was 
 destroyed by a feud worthy of the middle ages. In 
 1774, for example, an army of 700 Pennsylvanians 
 moved up the river to conquer the intruders, but at 
 the defile of Nanticoke, their boats being stopped by 
 an ice-jam, and themselves confronted by a fortifica- 
 tion, hostilities were terminated by a rousing volley 
 from the bushes, and a rousing volley into the bushes, 
 the latter killing one man.* 
 
 The controversy between New York and Massachu- 
 setts never reached such deplorable virulence as that 
 
 *Life of Major Van Campen. 
 
25 
 
 between the other two provinces. In the war of Re- 
 volution, private quarrels were bj common consent sus- 
 pended, and not long after that contest, the difficulty 
 was adjusted. On the 16th day of December, 1786, 
 by a compact entered into between the States of New 
 York and Massachusetts, it was agreed that the latter 
 State should release to the former all claim of sove- 
 reignty over lands lying within the present boundaries 
 of the former, and that the State of New York should 
 release and confirm to the State of Massachusetts the 
 right of pre-emption of the soil from the Indians, of 
 the greater part of New York lying west of Seneca 
 Lake. 
 
 On the 21st day of November, 1788, the State of 
 Massachusetts, for the consideration of three hundred 
 thousand pounds in the consolidated securities of that 
 State, ($100,000,) conveyed to Oliver Phelps and Na- 
 thaniel Gorham, all its right, title, and interest to 
 lands in Western New York, which now constitute the 
 counties of Steuben, Yates, Ontario, part of Wayne, 
 most of Monroe, a small part of Genesee and Living- 
 ston, and about one half of Allegany ; containing about 
 2,600,000 acres. The Indian title to this tract had 
 been purchased by Messrs. Phelps & Gorham by trea- 
 ty, at a convention held at Buffalo, in July, 1788. 
 
 The purchasers speedily caused their lands to be 
 surveyed and divided into seven ranges, numbered from 
 east to west by lines running north and south. The 
 ranges, which were six miles in width, were sub- 
 divided into townships designed to be six miles square, 
 and the townships were farther sub-divided into lots. 
 4 
 
26 
 
 That portion of the purchase which now constitutes 
 Steuben County, was surveyed for Phelps & Gorham 
 by Frederick Saxton, Augustus Porter, now of Niag- 
 ara Falls, Thomas Davis and Robert James, (or by the 
 two first named,) in the summer of 1789. Judge Por- 
 ter, in his narrative, published in Turner's History of 
 the Holland Purchase, says, with regard to this survey, 
 " While engaged in it, we made our head-quarters at 
 Painted Post, on the Conhocton River, at the house of 
 old Mr. Harris and his son William. These two men, 
 Mr. Goodhue, who lived near by, and Mr. Mead, who 
 lived at the mouth of Mead's Creek, were the only 
 persons then on the territory we were surveying." 
 
 Mr. Phelps opened an office for the sale of land at 
 Canandaigua. The fame of the Genesee Country had 
 been spread through all the East. Sullivan's soldiers 
 brought from the wilderness glowing accounts of vast 
 meadows and luxurient orchards hidden amongst the 
 forests of the Six Nations, and the adventurous men 
 of New England and Pennsylvania were not backward 
 to seek new homes in the fastnesses of their old ene- 
 mies. Before the middle of November, in 1790, about 
 50 townships had been sold, the most of which were 
 purchased by the township or half township, by indi- 
 viduals or companies of farmers.* 
 
 The settlement of Steuben County was commenced 
 under grants from Messrs. Phelps and Gorham, but 
 for convenience the whole history of the title to the 
 county may be here stated. 
 
 *Turner'8 Holland Purchase. 
 
27 
 
 Messrs. Phelps and Gorham, by deed dated the 18th 
 day of November, 1790, conveyed to Robert Morris 
 of Philadelphia, (the patriotic merchant of Revolution- 
 ary memory) the residue of their lands remaining un- 
 sold, amounting to about a million and a quarter 
 acres. 
 
 Robert Morris, by deed dated the 11th day of April, 
 1792, conveyed to Charles Williamson about one 
 million two hundred thousand acres of the Phelps and 
 Gorham tract, ■vyhich has been since known as the 
 Pulteney estate. Mr. Williamson held this estate in 
 secret trust for Sir William Pulteney, an English 
 Baronet, and others. In March, 1801, Mr. William- 
 son conveyed the estate formally to Sir William 
 Pulteney, an act having been passed by the Legisla- 
 ture of New York in 1798, authorizing conveyances to 
 aliens for the term of three years. This conveyance 
 was made three days before the expiration of the act 
 by its own limitation. 
 
 Sir William Pulteney was the son of Sir James 
 Johnstone. He assumed the name of Pulteney on his 
 marriage with Mrs. Pulteney, niece of the Earl of 
 Bath, and daughter of General Pulteney. He died 
 in 1805, leaving Henrietta Laura Pulteney, Countess 
 of Bath, his only heir. Lady Bath died in 1808, in- 
 testate. The Pulteney estate descended to Sir John 
 Lowther Johnstone, of Scotland, her cousin and heir-at- 
 law. Sir John Lowther Johnstone died in 1811, and 
 devised the estate in fee to Ernest Augustus Duke of 
 Cumberland, (since King of Hanover,) Charles Herbert 
 Pierrepoint, Masterton Ure and David Cathcart (Lord 
 
28 
 
 Alloway,) in trust, nevertheless, to sell the same as 
 speedily as possible, and to paj^ and discharge the in- 
 cumbrances on his estates in England and Scotland, 
 and to purchase copyhold estates adjacent to his 
 estates in Scotland. John Gordon was afterwards 
 appointed a trustee of the estate, in the place of 
 Pierrepoint (the Earl of Manvers,) who in 1819 re- 
 linquished his trust. The present trustees (since the 
 death of the King of Hanover) are Masterton Ure and 
 John Gordon. 
 
 The policy of the proprietors and trustees has been 
 to sell the lands as rapidly as possible to actual set- 
 tlers. In sixty years, as might be expected, by far 
 the greatest and most valuable portion of the State has 
 been disposed of, but considerable tracts of wild land 
 yet remain unsold. 
 
 The validity of the title to the Pulteney estate has 
 never been the subject of judicial construction in the 
 highest court of the State. A cause now before the 
 Court of Appeals, (decided in favor of the proprietors 
 in the Supreme Court,) will pobably set at rest the 
 question of title. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 STEUBEN COUNTY IMMEDIATELY BEFORE ITS SETTLE- 
 MENT A JOURNEY SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO THE 
 
 FOREST THE RIVERS, &C. SKETCH OF BENJAMIN 
 
 PATTERSON, THE HUNTER SKIRMISH AT FREELANd's 
 
 FORT SCUFFLE WITH " THE INTERPRETER" — THE 
 
 WILD OX OF GENESEE FLATS. 
 
 On the morning of Christmas-day, in the year 1787, 
 a backwoodsman and an Indian issued from the door 
 of a log cabin which stood half buried in snow on the 
 point of land lying between the Cowenisque Creek and 
 the Tioga River, at the junction of those streams, and 
 set forth on the ice of the river for a journey to the 
 settlements below. They were clad according to the 
 rude fashions of the frontiers and the forest, in gar- 
 ments partly obtained by barter from outpost traders, 
 and partly stripped by robbery from the beasts of the 
 forest. Tomahawks and knives were stuck in their belts, 
 snow shoes were bound to their feet, and knapsacks of 
 provisions were lashed to their backs. Such was the 
 equipment deemed necessary for travellers in Steuben 
 County not a century ago. 
 
 The snow lay upon the ground four full feet in 
 depth. It was brought from the north in one of those 
 might storms which in former days often swept down 
 4* 
 
30 
 
 from Canadian regions and poured the treasures of tlie 
 snowj zone on our colonial forests — storms -which sel- 
 dom visit us in modern days — as if the passage of tariff 
 hills, which have cramped the operations of many heavy 
 British-American firms, had made it impracticable for 
 Polar capitalists to introduce their fabrics into the 
 Commonwealth of New York with the profusion which 
 was encouraged in the times of the English governors. 
 The pioneer and his savage comrade pursued their 
 journey on the ice. The Tioga was then a wild and 
 free river. From its source, far up in. the " Magnolia 
 hills" of the old provincial maps, down to its union 
 with the equally wild and free Conhocton, no device of 
 civilized man fretted its noble torrent. A single habi- 
 tation of human beings stood upon its banks, the log 
 cabin at the mouth of the Cowenisque ; and that was 
 the westernmost cabin of New York.* But it bore now 
 upon its frozen surface the forerunner of an unresting 
 race of lumbermen and farmers, who in a few years in- 
 vaded its peaceful solitudes, dammed its wild flood, 
 and hewed down the lordly forests through which it 
 flowed. The travellers kept on their course beyond 
 the mouth of the Canisteo to the Painted Post. Here 
 they expected to find the cabin of one Harris, a trader, 
 where they might have lodgings for the night, and, if 
 necessary for the comfort of the savage breast, a 
 draught from " the cup which cheers (and also) inebri- 
 ates." On their arrival at the head of the Chemung, 
 
 * In strict truth, the cabin stood in Pennsylvania, a few rods from 
 the N'ew York line. 
 
81 
 
 however, thej found that the cabin had been destroyed 
 by fire. The trader had either been murdered by the 
 Indians, or devoured by wild beasts, or else he had left 
 the country, and Steuben County was in consequence 
 depopulated. 
 
 Disappointed in this hope, the two travellers con- 
 tinued their journey on the ice as far as Big Flats. 
 Here night overtook them. They kindled a fire on 
 the bank of the river, and laid them down to sleep. 
 The air was intensely cold. It was one of those clear, 
 still, bitter nights, when the moon seems an iceberg, 
 and the stars are bright and sharp like hatchets. The 
 savage rolled himself up in his blanket, lay with his 
 back to the fire, and did not so much as stir till the 
 morning ; but his companion, though framed of that 
 stout stuff out of which backwoodsmen are built, could 
 not sleep for the intensity of the cold. At midnight a 
 pack of wolves chased a deer from the woods to the 
 river, seized the wretched animal on the ice, tore it to 
 pieces and devoured it within ten rods of the encamp- 
 ment. Early in the morning the travellers arose and 
 went their way to the settlements below, the first of 
 which was Newtown, on the sight of the present village 
 of Eimira. 
 
 Such is one of the earliest glimpses of our county 
 granted us. Journies are performed in rather a difier- 
 ent manner now ! The incidents of the trip sound 
 oddly enough to the ear of the modern traveller — the 
 excursion on snow shoes — the possible destruction of 
 the village of Painted Post by the Indians — the en- 
 campment and night fire under the trees by the river 
 
32 
 
 bank, on a stinging Christmas nighty while frost-bitten 
 wolves regaled the ears of the travellers with dismal 
 howling ! The backwoodsman was Samuel Baker, a 
 New Englander, afterwards v.ell known to our citizens 
 as Judge Baker, of Pleasant Valley. 
 
 This is a winter scene. The Descriptive and His- 
 torical '^ Citizen" gives in his sketch* a summer pic- 
 ture, — *' a picture of our county as it was a few sum- 
 mers before the irruption of the backwoodsmen ; for 
 this, the figure of our rugged home arrayed in its an- 
 cient and barbarous yet picturesque and noble garb, is 
 one which the reflecting citizen will sometime contem- 
 plate in imagination, with pleasure, and not without 
 some degree of wonder. 
 
 " On a summer's day, shortly after the close of the 
 War of Revolution, let the observing citizen stand with 
 me on an exceedingly high mountain and survey the 
 land. It is a vast solitude, with scarce a sound to 
 break the reigning silence but the splashing of the 
 brooks in their defiles, and the brawling of the rivers 
 at the rifts, or perhaps the creaking of sulky old hem- 
 locks as the light wind stirs their branches or sways 
 their tottering trunks slowly to and fro. What a noble 
 forest is this, covering the valleys and the high, 
 rounded hills, and the steep sides of the winding gulfs, 
 and the crests of the successive ranges that rise above 
 each other till the outline of a blue and curving barrier 
 is traced against the sky. For ages upon ages has this 
 land been a wilderness. Savages have hunted in it. 
 
 * "Descriptive and Historical Sketch of Steuben County," 
 
 (M S.) politely placed at the disposal of the Editor of this volume. 
 
83 
 
 Storms have passed over it, and its history would pre- 
 sent but a record of wild beasts slain, of trees uprooted,, 
 and of the passage of terrible whirlwinds which broke 
 wide lanes through the forest and overthrew the tim- 
 bers of whole hill-sides. See how the three rivers flow 
 through grooves of elm and willow, while the white 
 sycamores, standing on unmolested islands, raise aloft 
 their long branches where the cranes rest with the 
 plunder of the shallows. Free rivers are these, flow- 
 ing joyously through the channels provided for them of 
 old, shackled by no dams, insulted by no bridges, tor- 
 mented by no saw-mills. They bear with gladness the 
 occasional canoe of the people that gave them their 
 sounding names ; they give drink to the heated deer, 
 to the panther, and the wallowing bear, — disgusted by 
 no base-born beasts of the yoke wading their stony 
 fords, nor by geese swimming in their clear waters, 
 nor by swine lounging in the warm mud of the eddies. 
 See, also, the lakes sleeping in the hollows prepared 
 for them anciently, their bluffs and beaches occupied 
 even to the water's edge with forest trees, while soli- 
 tary loons and fleets of wild fowl cruise on their waters, 
 scared by neither the wheels of the passing steamer, 
 nor by the whistling bullets of fowlers. Behold too 
 the creeks, the brooks, the torrents, leaping down from 
 the highlands like hearty young mountaineers; while in 
 the ravines through which they brawl the great pines 
 stand as if dreaming, unconscious that their gigantic 
 trunks contain spars and saw-logs. 
 
 " But the forest is not destitute of an active popu- 
 lace. Bears sit growling at the windows of their tow- 
 
34 
 
 ers in the hollow trees ; painted catamounts lurk in the 
 glens; panthers crouch on the low branches of the 
 oaks ; elk and many thousand deer are standing in the 
 ponds or browsing in the thickets ; while hungry gangs 
 of wolves rove at dusk through the groves with dismal 
 howling. And these are not the only citizens of the 
 wood. There we see the myriads of squirrels, the 
 -wood-fowls whistling and drumming in the thickets, 
 the old and clumsy sons of the she-bear tumbling in 
 the leaves in their awkward play, the comical raccoons 
 frolicking in the tree-tops, while the wise and sober 
 woodchuck goes forth alone, and the otter cruises in 
 the still waters of the streams. 
 
 " All these things, let the observing citizen mark, — 
 these far rolling forests, these silent lakes and wild 
 rivers, these savage creeks and torrents, these gorges 
 and wooded glens, these deep-worn valleys and the ab- 
 rupt ranges that bound them, and the promontories 
 that jut from the everchanging outlines of the ranges, — 
 all as they were in the ancient time before I begin the 
 story of their conquest, — a half melancholy story ; for 
 who can think how these solitudes were broken up and 
 these fine forests mangled without a half-regretful 
 thought 1 
 
 " The wilderness is doomed. Even now as we stand 
 on the mountain the men who will invade it are astir. 
 Down on the Susquehanna uneasy farmers are already 
 working their way upward in broad barges ; uneasy 
 New Englanders are already launching canoes on the 
 Unadilla, which will find their way hither. Even now 
 Scotchmen, Irishmen, and Englishmen are tossing on 
 
35 
 
 the seas who in a few years Avill live in these valleys^ 
 farmers and tradesmen, and even supervisors, Justices 
 of the Peace, and Judges. Barbarism, drawing its 
 fantastic blanket over its shoulders, and clutching its 
 curiously-wrought tomahawk, must withdraw to other 
 solitudes, jingling its brazen ornaments and whooping 
 as it goes." 
 
 Such was our County as seen by the " Citizen" be- 
 fore the year 1T87. There are a few additional facts 
 which escaped his notice on the " exceedingly high 
 mountain," which may with propriety be mentioned 
 before proceeding to the narration of events connected 
 with the settlement. 
 
 This whole region, — especially that part of it occu- 
 pied by the valleys of the Conhocton and Canisteo, — 
 was of old one of the best hunting grounds belonging 
 to the Six Nations, and was visited in the winter and 
 autumn by large parties of Seneca Indians, who came 
 from their villages on the Genesee for the destruction 
 of game. It was a royal park indeed — and yet of 
 course not such a park as the elegant deer-folds of 
 Europe thus named — but rather like those rugged and 
 unkempt Asiatic parks, where the Nimrods and Cy- 
 ruses of old, with their peers and captains, made war 
 upon lions and tigers, and boars ; only here were un- 
 fortunately neither boars, nor tigers, nor lions, and, 
 to speak truly, but shabby substitutes for such noble 
 game. It was only when the wild huntsman grappled 
 with the wounded panther or scuffled with the angry 
 bear, or dodged the horns of the furious stag, that the 
 perils of the chase deserved record with the exploits of 
 
36 
 
 those worthies of old, who pricked lions in the jungles 
 ivith their Assyrian pikes. Still, of very rude and 
 ugly beasts there was no scarcity. Of bears and pan- 
 thers there were quite as many as the County could 
 support even under a system of direct taxation for that 
 purpose, and when we take into account beside these, 
 the large and happy communities of rattlesnakes and 
 catamounts which flourished in eligible localities, there 
 is no reason why the patriotic citizen should feel mor- 
 tified at our county's ancient census returns. 
 
 There are certain facts with regard to the rivers 
 which do not appear in the Citizen's " Sketch." Be- 
 fore the settlement of the county, the rivers were much 
 deeper, stronger, and steadier, than they are at the 
 present day. In modern times they are notoriously 
 unreliable servants of the people — sometimes reducing 
 the saw-mills to half-rations, and confining the eels to 
 limited elbow-room ; anon rising above their banks, 
 flooding the flats, sweeping away piles of lumber, and 
 testing the labors of the commissioners of highways 
 and bridges, as is the undoubted right of every river 
 in this republican land. The destruction of the forests 
 has caused the drying up of multitudes of little springs 
 which formerly, by their penny contributions to the 
 great sinking-fund, swelled appreciably the treasures 
 of the streams. Freshets can be had on shorter notice 
 now than then, but they are of shorter duration. Then, 
 the snow melting in the woods slowly, caused the 
 March and April floods to be deliberate and of long 
 continuance. Now, the snow falling upon bare hills 
 and open farms, melts rapidly at sunshine and shower, 
 
87 
 
 rushes into the ravines and swells the creeks with vio- 
 lent and short-lived freshets. Many channels which 
 were formerly the beds of petty, but perennial brooks, 
 are now " dry runs," except after rains, when they 
 are filled with powerful torrents. The State Geolo- 
 gist apprehends serious inconvenience from the failure 
 of water, if the destruction of the forest is continued 
 in the future as extravagantly as during the last fifty 
 years. 
 
 Our ancient rivers, in addition to their superiority 
 in depth and power to the shallow streams which to- 
 day wind through our valleys, were far more correct in 
 their habits and firm in their principles than the mo- 
 dern waters — not being so easily persuaded to indulge 
 in irregularities, and not taking advantage of every 
 winter-thaw, to rise up, and go off on a •' bender," as 
 it were, with the creeks and runnels, like a crew of 
 light-headed youngsters. And yet it is not to be sup- 
 posed that they refrained entirely from such extrava- 
 gances. Early settlers well remember how the lower 
 valley of the Tioga was flooded from hill to hill fully a 
 mil©, deep enough, almost, at the shallowist, to swim 
 a horse; and how men, near Painted Post, paddled their 
 canoes in the roads for miles. This was about forty- 
 five years ago. 
 
 The rivers were furthermore grievously afflicted 
 with flood-wood. They bore down with their strong- 
 est waters annual tribute to the Susquehanna, of 
 trees, broken trunks, and enormous roots — the bullion 
 of the forest — like savage chiefs of the mountain, bear- 
 ing gifts to the prince of the plains, of rough ores, un- 
 5 
 
38 
 
 wrought gems, and the feathers of strange birds. In 
 modern days we continue this tribute, but in a differ- 
 ent form, as evidence of our improved state — coining the 
 uncooth bullion into boards or huge ingots of timber. 
 Notwithstanding the great quantities of flood-wood 
 from which the rivers freed themselves by the occasion- 
 al floods, there w^ere yet large masses of this raft which 
 the freshet did not loosen, or at most, shifted from 
 point to point. The two lesser rivers were fairly 
 strangled by these dams. Navigation, for any craft 
 heavier that the birch canoe of the pagan, was utterly 
 impracticable. After the settlement of the county, 
 these collections of flood-wood w^ere chopped and burn- 
 ed away at a considerable public expense. Something 
 has been done, too, toward straightening the navigable 
 streams. Upon the whole, it would appear that our 
 county contained in old times, a very heedless and law- 
 less family of waters. The rivers were badly snarled. 
 It is one of the most pleasing results of a judicious civ- 
 ilization that these tangled torrents have been combed 
 out smoothly, and that the mountain creeks, which then 
 like wild colts came leaping through the ravines, have 
 at last been caught in huge timber traps so ingeniously 
 contrived with bulkheads and flooms, that there was 
 really no chance of escape for these lively streams, 
 and have been given to understand that all this caper- 
 ing through the glens, and leaping over the rocks, 
 might be excused when the poor Indian who knew no- 
 thing about hydraulics held the land, but that they 
 must now come into the harness and carry saw-logs 
 and turn under-shot wheels. 
 
39 
 
 Considering all these things — the forests, the hills, 
 the shaded islands, the "wild beasts, and the untamed 
 rivers — our county appears to have been truly a fast- 
 ness of barbarism. Its ancient tenants did not yield 
 it without a long battle, fought inch by inch with fire 
 and steel. Mountains and rivers formed a league. 
 The mountains displayed the fortitude of martyrs. 
 When beset by merciless farmers, they resolutely re- 
 fused to give up their treasures. Dumb and obstinate 
 they were stripped of their raiment, they were flayed, 
 they were torn wdth plows and harrows,. they were 
 scorched with fire — like Jews in the castles of the old 
 barons — and only surrendered their hidden Avealth af- 
 ter the most dreadful tortures. Tlie rivers, with equal 
 fidelity, resisted the inroads of the back-w-oodsmen. 
 The "Citizen" says, "If the rivers of this county 
 were anciently populated with any tribe of Indian bo- 
 gles, or water-imps, (and there is no good reason for 
 supposing that they were not,) I should say that these 
 invisible citizens mustered for a last stand, in de- 
 fence of their homes. They built barricades of flood- 
 wood, they piled up battlements of great roots, they 
 pulled down mighty sycamores to fortify the rifts. But 
 they were overpowered like the insurgents of Paris. 
 Their barricades were broken with axes or destroyed 
 by fire, and the fleets of the pioneers pushed their way 
 up the rivers by degrees, driving before them these un- 
 lucky little aborigines." 
 
 There were many patches of land on the river flats, 
 which were free from timber. At the north of the 
 Canisteo there was an " open flat" of some two hun- 
 
40 
 
 dred acres. In the upper valley of that river there 
 was a much larger one. There were open flats near 
 the Painted Post and up the Tioga, and a single one 
 on the Conhocton — the fine meadows south of the vil- 
 vage of Bath. 
 
 There was at this time a man living near Northum- 
 berland, in Pennsylvania, who afterwards became a 
 noted citizen of this county ; and although his con- 
 nection with it did not begin till after the first settle- 
 ments were made, yet, for convenience, a brief sketch 
 of him may be introduced. 
 
 BENJAMIN PATTERSON, THE HUNTER. 
 
 Of great renown, towards the close of the last cen- 
 tury, throughout all the hill-country of the West, was 
 Ben Patterson, the hunter. From the mid-branches 
 of the Susquehanna to the most north-western waters of 
 that river, there was not one of greater fame. Cou- 
 rageous and energetic of spirit, and powerful of frame, 
 he explored the forests of Pennsylvania, roved over 
 the ridges and through the ravines of the Alleganies, 
 navigated untried rivers, discovered mines and hidden 
 valleys, gave names to creeks and mountains, and 
 guided adventures through the wilderness. 
 - Sometimes he was a hunter ; sometimes an Indian 
 fighter ; sometimes a spy ; sometimes a Moses to des- 
 pairing emigrants ; sometimes forrester to backwoods 
 barons. He had been associated with all the noted 
 characters of the frontier : with Gurty, the renegade ; 
 with Murphy, the runner; with Van Campen, the 
 
41 
 
 ranger ; with Hammond, the fighter. He knew the 
 farmers of Wyoming, the riflemen of the West Branch, 
 and the warriors of Niagara. To bears, panthers, 
 and wolves, to elk, deer, and beaver, he was an Alaric. 
 The number of these beasts that fell before his rifle 
 almost passes account. In the latter years of his life, 
 when an old man, living on his farm by the Tioga, and 
 game began to become scarce, he thought it necessary 
 to put a narrow limit to his annual destruction of deer, 
 and in each year thereafter laid up his rifle when he 
 had killed an hundred. He was not a mere destroyer 
 of wild beasts, but a man of keen observation, of re- 
 markable powers of memory, of intelligence, of judg- 
 ment, and withal of strict integrit3% He possessed 
 great powers of narration. Not only children and 
 rough men of the frontier, but men of learning, listen- 
 ed hour after hour to his thousand tales. The late 
 Chief Justice Spencer, when Circuit Judge, once met 
 him at the Mud Creek tavern, in this county, and was 
 so interested with his graphic descriptions of wild 
 scenery and wood life, that he sat up all night with 
 him engaged in conversation ; and always after, when 
 holding court at Bath, sent for the hunter, provided 
 for him at the hotel, and passed in his company a 
 great part of his time off" the bench. 
 
 Mr. Patterson was born in London county, in the 
 State of Virginia, in the year 1759, and died in 1830, 
 at Painted Post, having been for the last thirty-five 
 years of his life a citizen of this county. His mother 
 was a cousin of Daniel Boone, the first of the Ken- 
 tuckians. Early in life he removed with the family of 
 5* 
 
42 
 
 his step-father to Pennsylvania, and passed the greater 
 part of his youth in that State, though living for a 
 time again in Virginia. It was on the Susqehanna 
 frontiers that his hunting tastes were formed and de- 
 veloped. 
 
 During the Revolutionary war he served in a rifle- 
 corps, organized for the defence of the borders, and in 
 this perilous service met with many adventures. At 
 the skirmish of Freeling's Fort, in 1779, he and his 
 younger brother Robert (who afterwards was also a 
 citizen of this county) fought in the party of Captain 
 Hawkins Boone, and narrowly escaped with their lives. 
 Frceling's Fort, on the West Branch of the Susque- 
 hanna, had been taken by a party of Tories and In- 
 dians, the former under the command of McDonald, a 
 noted loyalist of Tryon county, in New York, and the 
 latter led by Hiakatoo (the husband of Mary Jemison 
 " the white woman.") Captain Boone's party of 
 thirty-two volunteered to scout in the neighbor- 
 hood of the captured fort, and to attack the ene- 
 my if it could be advantageously done. They 
 advanced cautiously, and succeeded in concealing 
 themselves in a cluster of bushes overlooking the 
 camp of the enemy. Both tories and Indians 
 were engaged in cooking or eating, while a single 
 sentinel, a fine tall savage, with a blanket drawn over 
 his head, walked slowly to and fro. Boone's men com- 
 menced firing by platoons of six. The sentry sprang 
 into the air with a whoop and fell dead. The enemy 
 yelling frightfully ran to arms and opened a furious 
 but random fire at their unseen foes. Their bullets 
 
43 
 
 rattled through the bushes where Boone's men lay hid, 
 but did no mischief. The slaughter of Indians and 
 Tories was dreadful. The thirty-two rangers firing 
 coolly and rapidly by sixes, with the unerring aim of 
 frontiersmen, shot down one hundred and fifty (so the 
 story runs) before the enemy broke and fled. Boone's 
 men, with strange indiscretion, rushed from their 
 covert in pursuit, and immediately exposed their 
 weakness of numbers. Hiakatoo with his Indians 
 made a circuit, and attacked them in the rear, while 
 McDonald turned upon their front. They were sur- 
 rounded. " Save yourselves men as you can," cried 
 Captain Boone. The enemy closed with tomahawks and 
 spears. This part of the fight occurred in the midst 
 of the woods. The rangers broke through their foes, 
 and fled with such success that many escaped, but 
 their captain and more than half of his men were 
 killed. Robert Patterson, who was very swift of foot, 
 was followed several miles to the clearings of another 
 fort by three or four fleet Indians. Seeing that he 
 would escape from them, his pursuers reserved their 
 fire till he should clamber over the fence which enclosed 
 the clearing, when they might aim at him with greater 
 certainty than while he was running through the 
 woods. He however sprang to the top rail at a bound 
 and escaped. The bullets struck the wood just under 
 his feet. Benjamin Patterson, in the meantime, had 
 hidden himself under a log overgrown with vines or 
 briars. The Indians ransacked the woods all around, 
 and passed so near his hiding place that he could touch 
 their moccasins with his ramrod. Many times he 
 
4^ 
 
 thought himself discovered, and was on the point of 
 springing forth to die fighting, but the Indians gradu- 
 ally wandered away from his vicinity. The last strag- 
 gler returning from the pursuit carried the dripping 
 scalp of the only red-haired man in the party, which he 
 was twirling around his finger with great delight. 
 " I was strongly tempted to shoot that fellow," said 
 Patterson, but on reflecting that the main body of the 
 Indians was not distant, he thought it prudent to deny 
 himself that pleasure. At night he escaped to Bocne's 
 Fort. 
 
 The enemy re-took the prisoners of Freeling's Fort, 
 and carried away many captives to Niagara. Patter- 
 son, in a company of rangers, pursued. They believed 
 that the Indians had a great many wounded with them, 
 for at the deserted encampments bushels of slippery- 
 elm bark were found, which had been pounded in pre- 
 paring draughts and dressings.* The enemy struck 
 over from Pine Creek to the Tioga, and passed up the 
 valley of the Conhocton to Niagara. 
 
 Patterson was engaged throughout the war in the 
 perilous frontier-services ; sometimes scouting with the 
 wary and fearless captains of the borders ; sometimes 
 skirmishing in the forests ; sometimes devising plots 
 
 * Captain Montour, the chief who was buried at the Painted Post, 
 was in McDonald's band, and died fi*om wounds received at Free- 
 ling's or Freeland's Fort. He was said to be a son of Queen Cathe- 
 rine of Seneca Lake. There is no detailed account of this skirmish 
 in any accessible book with which to compare Patterson's stoiy. It 
 is briefly alluded to in the biographies of Brant and Yan Campen, 
 the only authorities at hand. 
 
45 
 
 and counter plots against the secret and wise foes who 
 hid in the dark places of the wilderness, and came and 
 went like the lightning. At the close of the war he 
 was at liberty to give himself up to his roving and 
 hunting propensities. He explored the region north 
 of the West Branch, passed up through the Genesee 
 country, spied out the land, and guided emigrants, 
 travellers and adventurers through the woods ; shoot- 
 ing always wherever he went. He was the guide of 
 Talleyrand in an excursion through the wild country, 
 and at a later period piloted another French gentleman 
 for many weeks around the wilderness. The latter 
 was agent for a company of French emigrants, then 
 residing at Philadelphia, who desired to make a settle- 
 ment in some choice place on the outside of civilization. 
 The Frenchman was a merry companion, and took to 
 wild life with a good grace. With a negro servant he 
 followed the hunter over a great extent of country, 
 learning to swim and shoot, bathing in the lakes, sleep- 
 ing on the ground, and learning backwoods science 
 with much zeal. The emigrants, it is said, were sadly 
 taken in by the" land speculators who sold them at a 
 great price, an armful of mountains not worth eighteen 
 pence. 
 
 The hunter's home was for many years on the West 
 Branch, near Northumberland. After the war, the 
 region thereabout began to be overrun to a destructive 
 rate with farmers, who laid waste the homes of the 
 bear and the wolf with the most sickening barbarity. 
 The forests were again and again decimated, till his 
 old hunting grounds, disfigured with wheat fields, corn 
 
46 
 
 fields and potato fields, presented a melancholy scene 
 of devastation. The wild beasts quite lost heart, and 
 began to retire to deeper solitudes, and the hunter de- 
 termined to remove his household elsewhere, into a 
 land as yet unmolested by plowmen and wood-choppers. 
 In the year 1796, he boated his goods up the river to 
 Painted Post, and kept for seven years the old tavern 
 at Knoxville. At the end of that time, he moved up 
 on the farm now occupied by one of his sons, two miles 
 above the village of Painted Post, on the Tioga. It 
 was quite a productive farm, yielding a crop of twenty- 
 two wolves, nine panthers, bears a few, besides deer, 
 shad and salmon uncounted. 
 
 He was of medium stature, and squarely built. 
 When in his prime, he possessed great strength and 
 activity, and was famed as " a very smart man." 
 He never encountered a man who got the better of him 
 in a scufile. His acquaintance with the famous inter- 
 preter, Horatio Jones,* commenced in true frontier 
 chivalry. A party of Indians, with a few white men, 
 had gathered around a camp-fire near the Genesee, 
 when for some reason, the savages began to insult and 
 abuse an individual who was standing by. At length 
 they threw him into the fire. The man scrambled out. 
 The Indians again seized him and threw him into the 
 fire. Patterson, who stood near, a perfect stranger to 
 the company, sprang forward, saying to the tormentors 
 " Don't burn the man alive !" and dragged him oif the 
 
 * A Pennsylvaaian. Taken prisoner by the Indians when eigh- 
 teen years of age ; he became, for his courage, strength and spirit, 
 a favorite with his captors, and gained great influence over them. 
 
burning logs. Two or three of this genial party, 
 displeased at the interruption of their diversions, im- 
 mediately assaulted the hunter, but relinquished the 
 honor of whipping him to Jones, who stepped forward 
 to settle the affair in person. Jones was also famed 
 as a *' smart man," being powerful, well skilled in 
 athletic sports, and able to maintain his authority over 
 the Indians by strength of arm. Before the fight had 
 lasted many minutes, the savages standing around be- 
 gan to whisper in their own language, " He has got 
 his match this time," with perhaps some little satis- 
 faction, for the Interpreter used a rod of iron, and 
 sometimes banged his people about without ceremony. 
 Jones was badly beaten, and kept his wigwam for 
 several days> At the trial of the Indians, Sundown 
 and Curly-eye, at Bath, in 1825, (or about that time,) 
 Jones, who was present as interpreter, laughed heartily 
 over the matter, and sent his compliments to the old 
 hunter. 
 
 He was of course a crack shot, and carried a rifle 
 which killed where vulgar guns smoked in vain. In 
 one of his excursions with Capt. Williamson, he found 
 a wild ox roving over the vast Genesee Flats, which, 
 by his sagacity and swiftness, baffled all the efforts of 
 the Indians to destroy him. This beast was the last 
 of several domestic oxen, which at times strayed to 
 these marvellous meadows, and became wild as buffa- 
 loes. They lived like the cattle of Eden in the luxu- 
 rious pasture of the flats during the summer, and in 
 the winter by thrusting their noses through the snow, 
 ate the frozen grass below, and sustained life quite 
 
48 
 
 comfortably. All had been slain but the one -which 
 was now grazing in that great field, and his faculties 
 had been so sharpened by the relapse to barbarism, 
 that it was quite impossible for even the craft of the 
 Indians to circumvent him. His scent was almost as 
 keen as the elk's ; his eyesight was so quick and sus- 
 picious, that before the red men could skulk within 
 gunshot of him, he shook his great white horns and 
 raced oft' through the high grass like an antelope. 
 Capt. Williamson charged Patterson to lay low the 
 head of this famous beast. The hunter crept along 
 carefully while the ox was grazing, and when it raised 
 its head and stared around the plain to discern an ene- 
 my, lay flat in the grass. Either his patience or his 
 skill was greater than that of the Indians, for he com- 
 pletely out-generalled the wary animal, got within fair 
 shooting range of it, fired and brought it down. The 
 savages set up a great whooping, and crowded around 
 the fallen ox as though it were a horned horse, or a 
 sea-elephant. One of his noble horns, suitably carved 
 and ornamented, afterwards hung at the hunter's side 
 as a powder-horn. 
 
 He preserved in his old age all the characteristics of 
 the hunter, and always found his chief pleasures in 
 the vigorous pursuits to Avhich his youth had been de- 
 voted. When attending court at Bath, as a juryman, 
 he was in the habit of going out in the morning, before 
 any body was stirring, to the little lake, east of the 
 village, and shooting a deer before breakfast. It is to 
 be regretted that the reminiscences we have collected 
 of this far-known character, and recorded in this and 
 
49 
 
 in succeeding chapters of this volume, are so scanty. 
 More of the thousand tales, -which he told of the "old 
 times " to boys and neighbors and travellers, might 
 doubtless be gathered even yet; but had they been taken 
 from his own lips in his lifetime, they would have formed 
 a volume of reminiscence and adventure of rare in- 
 terest. There would have been, besides, a gain in ac- 
 curacy ; for what we have collected were told twenty 
 or thirty years ago to youngsters. Whatever was told 
 by the old hunter himself was to be relied upon, for 
 he was carefully and strictly truthful. 
 
 6 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENTS MADE UNDER THE PURCHASE BY 
 
 PHELPS AND GORHAM PAINTED POST THE FIRST 
 
 SETTLER THE SETTLEMENT OF THE UPPER VALLEY 
 
 OF THE CANISTEO THE CANISTEO FLATS LIFE 
 
 IN THE VALLEY A WRESTLING MATCH CAPTAIN 
 
 JOHN OLD ENEMIES MAJOR VAN CAMPEN AND 
 
 MOHAWK A DISCOMFITED SAVAGE CAPTURE OF A 
 
 SAW-MILL THE LOWER CANISTEO VALLEY COL. 
 
 LINDLY A DEER-SLAYER IMMORTALIZED. 
 
 THE OLD TOWN OF PAINTED POST. 
 
 In the summer of 1779, a numerous party of Tories 
 and Indians, under the command of a Loyalist named 
 McDonald and Hiakatoo, a renowned Seneca war-chief, 
 returned to the north by way of Pine creek, the Tioga, 
 and the Conhocton, from an incursion among the set- 
 tlements on the west branch of the Susquehanna. They 
 had suffered a severe loss in a conflict with the border- 
 ers, and brought with them many wounded. Their 
 march was also encumbered by many prisoners, men, 
 women and children, taken at Freeling's Fort. A 
 party of rangers followed them a few day*, journeying 
 into the wilderness, and found at their abandoned en- 
 campment abundantproof of the manfulness with which 
 
51 
 
 the knives and rifles of the frontier had been used in 
 repelling its foes, in the heaps of bark and roots which 
 had been pounded or steeped in preparing draughts 
 and dressings for the wounded warriors. Under the 
 elms of the confluence of the Tioga and Conhocton, 
 Captain Montour, a half-breed, a fine young chief, a 
 gallant warrior and a favorite with his tribe, died of 
 his wounds. He was a son of the famous Queen Cath- 
 arine. His comrades buried him by the river side, 
 and planted above his grave a post on which was painted 
 various symbols and rude devices. This monument 
 was known throughout the Genesee Forest as the Paint- 
 ed Post. It was a landmark well knov/n to all the 
 Six Nations, and was often visited by their braves and 
 chieftains.* 
 
 * This account of the origin of the Painted Post was given to Ben- 
 jamin Patterson, the Hunter, by a man named Taggart, who was 
 carried to Fort Niagara a prisoner by McDonald's party, and was a 
 witness of the burial of Captain Montour, or at least was in the en- 
 campment at the mouth of the Tioga at the time of his death. Col. 
 Harper, of Harpersfield, the well known officer of the frontier militia 
 of New York in the Revolution, informed Judge Knox, of Knoxville 
 in this county, that the Painted Post was erected over the grave of a 
 chief who was wounded at the battle of the Hog-back, and brought 
 in a canoe to the head of the Chemung, where he died. At all events 
 it was well understood by the early settlers, that this monument 
 was erected in memory of some distinguished warrior who had been 
 wounded in one of the border battles of the Revolution, and after- 
 wards died at this place. The post stood for many years after the 
 settlement of the county, and the story goes that it rotted down at 
 the butt, and was preserved in the bar-room of a tavern till about 
 the year 1810, and then disappeared unaccountably. It is also said 
 to have been swept away in a freshet. 
 
52 
 
 At the Painted Post, the first habitation of civilized 
 man erected in Steuben county, was built by William 
 Harris, an Indian Trader. Harris was a Pennsylva- 
 nian, and not long after the close of the Revolutionary 
 war pushed up the Chemung with a cargo of Indian 
 goods, to open a traffic with the hunting parties of the 
 Six Nations, which resorted at certain seasons to the 
 northwestern branches of the Susquehanna. A canoe or 
 a pack-horse sufficed at that time to transport the 
 yearly merchandise of the citizens of our county. Sixty- 
 five years afterwards, an armada of canal boats and a 
 caravan of cars hardly performed this labor. The 
 precise date of Harris's arrival is unknown. Judge 
 Baker, late of Pleasant Valley, found the trader estab- 
 lished at his post in the spring of 1787. On Chpist- 
 mas night following, he went down to the Painted Post, 
 and finding the cabin burned and the trader missing, 
 he inferred that the latter had perhaps been killed by 
 his customers — a disaster by no means unlikely to be- 
 fall a merchant in a region where the position of debtor 
 was much more pleasant and independent than that of 
 creditor, especially if the creditor had the misfortune 
 to be white and civilized. Harris, however, had met 
 with no calamity. On the contrary, his intercourse 
 with the Indians was of a very friendly and confiden- 
 tial character. They rendered him much valuable 
 assistance in setting up business, not of course by en- 
 dorsing his paper, or advancing funds on personal se- 
 curity; but by helping him to erect his warehouse, and 
 patronising him in the handsomest manner afterwards. 
 They even carried the logs out of which the cabin was 
 
53 
 
 "built, on their shoulders, to the proposed site of the 
 edifice, which was after all, to speak with strict ety- 
 mology, a species of endorsement. 
 
 The savages manifested much zeal in promoting the 
 establishment of a trading post at the head of the Che- 
 mung, and indeed it was a matter of as much conse- 
 quence at that time as the building of a Railroad De- 
 pot is in modern days. Before that, the citizens of 
 the county were obliged to go to Tioga Point, nearly 
 fifty miles below, to buy their gunpowder, liquors, 
 knives, bells, brads, and jews-harps ; and the pro- 
 posal of Harris to erect a bazaar at the Painted Post, 
 for the sale of these articles, was as vital concern to 
 the interests of the county as at the present day an 
 offer of the government to establish a university in 
 Tyrone or an observatory in Troupsburg would be. It 
 was a great day for the county when the trader's 
 cabin was finished, and his wares unpacked. Then 
 the sachem might buy scalping knives and hatchets on 
 the bank of his own river ; the ladies of the wilderness 
 could go shopping without paddling their canoes to 
 the Susquehanna, and the terrible warriors of the Six 
 Nations, as they sat of an evening under their own elm 
 trees, smoking pipes bought at the " People's Store," 
 hard by, forgot their cunning ; when some renowned 
 Captain Shiverscull, a grim and truculent giant, steeped 
 to his elbows in the blood of farmers, and scarred with 
 bullets and tomahawks like a target, sat upon a log, 
 soothing his savage breast with the melodies of a jews- 
 harp, or winding around that bloody finger, which had 
 so often been twisted in the flaxen apalp-locks of Penn- 
 ed 
 
54 
 
 sylvanian children, a string of beads, bought for his 
 own ugly little cub, that lay asleep in the wigwam of 
 Genesee. 
 
 At the time of Judge Baker's visit, Harris was only 
 temporarily absent. He afterwards returned to Painted 
 Post with his son, and lived there a few years, when 
 he again removed to Pennsylvania. One or two others 
 are sometimes pointed out as the first settlers of the 
 county ; but evidence, which must be regarded as re- 
 liable and decisive, proves that the first civilized resi- 
 dent was William Harris. It is possible, indeed, that 
 before his advent some straggling adventurer may have 
 wandered hither, built him a lodge, perhaps planted 
 corn on the open flats, and afterwards strayed to parts 
 unknown, leaving no trace of his existence. There 
 have always been, on the frontiers, eccentric geniuses, 
 to whom such a line of conduct was no strange thing. 
 There have always been, on the frontiers, a few vaga- 
 bonds, who should have been born wolves, who forsake 
 civilized homes and join the Indians, and are only hin- 
 dered from living with the bears in their hollow trees, 
 by the refusal of these sensible monsters to fraternize 
 with such loafers. Hermits, hunters and vagabonds 
 find their way into strange places, and it is by no 
 means impossible that some pleasant island or open 
 flat may have harbored one of these outlaws before 
 any other wanderer, laying claim to civilization, smote 
 our forests with the all-conquering axe. No such Ro- 
 binson Crusoe, however, presents himself as a candi- 
 date for historical honors, and it is, upon the whole, im- 
 probable that any such preceded the trader, or if he 
 
55 
 
 did, that he enjoyed his solitude a great while unmo- 
 lested. The "Man Friday " he would have been like- 
 ly to catch here would most probably have caught Am, 
 and whisked his scalp off without winking. 
 
 Harris was a trader, and did not cultivate the soil. 
 Frederick Calkins, a Vermonter, was the first farmer 
 of Steuben. He made his settlement near the head of 
 the Chimney Narrows, in 1788. After living there 
 alone for a time, he returned to the east for his family. 
 During this absence, Phelps and Gorham's surveyors 
 made head-quarters at Painted Post, which accounts 
 for the omission of his name in Judge Porter's narra- 
 tive, quoted in the last chapter. George Goodhue fol- 
 lowed Mr. Calkins in a year or two. 
 
 Township number two in the second range, was pur- 
 chased of Phelps and Gorham, in 1790, by six pro- 
 prietors, Frederick Calkins, Justus Wolcott, of East- 
 ern New York, Ephraim Patterson, of Connecticut, 
 Silas Wood, Caleb Gardener and Peleg Gorton. The 
 price paid for the township was eight cents per acre. 
 
 The old town of Painted Post comprised the present 
 towns of Hornby, Campbell, Erwin, Painted Post, Ca- 
 ton and Lindley. The earliest settlers along the Che- 
 mung and Conhocton were the six proprietors (except- 
 ing Silas Wood), Eli and Eldad Mead, (1790,) David 
 and Jonathan Cook, of New Jersey, (1790,) Judge 
 Knox, of Eastern New York, (1793,) Benjamin Eaton, 
 Elias Williams, Henry McCormick, Hezekiah Thur- 
 ber, Bradford Eggleston, Samuel Colegrove, John Ber- 
 ry and others. John Winters, a famous hunter, set- 
 
56 
 
 tied there at an early da}^, and families named Rowan, 
 Waters, Van Wye, Turner, McCullick, &c. 
 
 Mr. Eli Mead was the first Supervisor of the town, 
 and went on foot to Canandaigua, to attend the meet- 
 ing of the Board of Supervisors of Ontario county. 
 
 Gen. McClure, speaking of the early settlers of that 
 neighborhood, mentions " a man by the name of Ful- 
 ler, who kept the old Painted Post Hotel. That an- 
 cient house of entertainment, or tavern (as such were 
 then called) was composed of round logs, one story 
 high, and if I mistake not was divided into two apart- 
 ments. This house was well patronized by its neigh- 
 bors as by travellers from afar. All necessarily stop- 
 ped here for refreshment, as well for themselves as for 
 their horses. Fuller, the landlord, was a good natured, 
 slow and easy kind of a man, but his better half, Nel- 
 ly, was a thorough-going, smart, good-looking woman, 
 and was much admired by gentlemen generally. To 
 the wearied traveller, nothing can be more agreeable 
 than a pleasant, obliging landlady. There were other 
 respectable families settled at Painted Post, not many 
 years after, (1794,) Thomas McBurney, Esq., Capt. 
 Samuel Erwin, Frank and Arthur, his brothers, Capt. 
 Howell Bull, -^ohn E. Evans, an Englishman, and 
 others." 
 
 A mill was built on the Post Creek, near the Nar- 
 rows, by Mr. Payne and Col. Henderson, as early as 
 1793 or 1794. This mill is described by the few who 
 remember it, as having been mainly built of logs " so 
 that you could drive a pig through it." 
 
 The first establishment, for the sale of goods to ci- 
 
67 
 
 vilized men, was kept by Benjamin Eaton. He went 
 for his first stock to Wattles' Ferry (now Unadilla 
 village) in a canoe, with a man and a boy, (Mr. Samuel 
 Cook, of Campbelltown.) At that place he purchased 
 another canoe, loaded his fleet with goods and returned 
 to Painted Post. 
 
 Col. Arthur Erwin, the ancestor of a large family 
 bearing his name, emigrated from Ireland before the 
 Revolution. During the war he served in the Ameri- 
 can army. He resided in Bucks County, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and became the proprietor of a large landed es- 
 tate. He was shot dead through the window of a log 
 house at Tioga Point, in 1792, by an ejected squatter, 
 who escaped. 
 
 Hon. William Steele, a well known and highly re- 
 spected citizen of Painted Post, removed from New 
 Jersey in 1819. He served in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion, and was severely wounded and made prisoner at 
 sea in 1780. In 1785 he was appointed clerk in the 
 old Board of Treasury, and in 1794 he commanded a 
 troop of horse and aided in suppressing the insurrection 
 near Pittsburgh. He died in 1851. {Obituary notice 
 in Corning Journal,) 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE UPPER VALLEY OF THE 
 CANISTEO. 
 
 A party of boatmen attached to General Sullivan's 
 army in the invasion of the Genesee in 1779, while 
 awaiting in the Chemung River the return of their 
 commander and his column from the north, pushed up 
 
58 
 
 the river as far as the Painted Post, out of curiosity to 
 know how the land Lay on the northwestern branches 
 of the Susquehanna. Among the soldiers of Sullivan 
 was Uriah Stephens, Jr., a Pennsylvanian. He believ- 
 ing, from the report of the boatmen, that some fertile 
 flat might lie among those northern hills where fron- 
 tiersmen, not bountifully provided for in the lower val- 
 leys, might found settlements and thrive for a time on 
 venison and hominy, determined after the war to seek 
 such a place and to emigrate thither. 
 
 Mr. Stephens belonged to a numerous family of New 
 England descent, which had settled at an early day in 
 the Wyoming region ; and they, with other families 
 which afterwards joined them in the settlement of the 
 Upper Canisteo, suffered in the attack of the Indians 
 and Tories on that ill-fated district in 1778. One of 
 the oldest surviving members of the family was carried 
 in the arms of a neighbor (James Hadley, also a settler . . 
 of Canisteo,) from the farm to the fort, and though al- I 
 most an infant at the time retains distinctly the impres- 
 sion made by the night alarm, the terror, the flight 
 and the confusion. The wife of Col. John Stephens, 
 a late well-known citizen, was once captured by a party 
 of savages, and in the skirmish and rescue which ensued 
 upon the pursuit of her captors by the border-men 
 (one account says at the battle of the Hog-back) was 
 wounded by a rifle ball fired by one of her friends. 
 The Stephens', after several removals from Wysox, 
 Queen Esther's Flats, and other localities, were living, 
 in the fourth or fifth year after the close of the Revo- 
 lutionary War, at Newtown. 
 
59 
 
 Several families, relatives and acquaintance, were 
 found willing to engage in the enterprise of further 
 emigration. In 1788, Solomon Bennet, Capt. John 
 Jameson, Uriah Stephens, and Richard Crosby, started 
 upon an exploration. Passing up the Chemung to 
 Painted Post, thej found there a few cabins, a half a 
 dozen settlers, and Saxton and Porter, the surveyors 
 of Phelps and Gorham. Penetrating further into the 
 north by way of the Conhocton Valle}^, they found no 
 lands which satisfied their expectations. On their re- 
 turn they struck across the hills from the upper waters 
 of the Conhocton, and after toiling through the dense 
 forests which crowded the shattered region to the west- 
 ward of that river, they came suddenly upon the brink 
 of a deep and fine valley through which the Canisteo 
 rambled, in a crooked channel marked by the elms and 
 willows which overhung it. The prospect was singu- 
 larly beautiful. The huge barriers of the valley laden 
 with that noble timber which raftsmen for half a cen- 
 tury have been floating through the cataracts of the 
 Susquehanna, ran in precipitous parallels at a generous 
 distance for several miles and then closing in, granted 
 the river for its passage but a narrow gorge made dark 
 by hemlocks. A heavy forest covered the floor of the 
 valley. Groves of gigantic pine stood with their deep 
 green tops in the midst of the maples, the elms, and 
 the white sycamores. So even was the surface of the 
 vale, so abrupt and darkly-shaded the ranges that en- 
 closed it, that the explorers, looking down upon the 
 tree tops that covered the ground from hill to hill, 
 seemed to be standing above a lake of timber. At the 
 
60 
 
 lower part of the valley there was an open flat, of seve- 
 ral hundred acres, overgrown with wild grass so high 
 that a horse and rider could pass through the meadow 
 almost unseen. It was like a little prairie, beautiful 
 indeed, but strangely out of place in that rugged re- 
 gion, — as if some great Indian prophet had stolen a- 
 choice fragment from the hunting grounds of the Mis- 
 souri and hidden it in the midst of mountains bristling 
 with gloomy hemlocks. 
 
 The explorers decided to purchase the two townships 
 on the river, which included the open flats. Eight 
 other men joined in the purchase : Col. Arthur Urwin, 
 Joel Thomas, Uriah Stephens, (father of Uriah Ste- 
 phens, Jr.,) John Stephens, his son, William Wine- 
 coop, James Hadley, Elisha Brown and Christian 
 Kress. 
 
 In the summer of 1789, a company of men were sent 
 to the flats, wdio cut and stacked a sufficient quantity 
 of wild grass to winter the cattle that were to be 
 driven on. In the autumn of the same year, Uriah 
 Stephens, the elder, and Richard Crosby, with por- 
 tions of their families, started from Newtown to begin 
 the proposed settlement. The provisions, baggage and 
 families were carried up in seven-ton boats, while four 
 sons of Mr. Stephens, Elias, Elijah, Benjamin and 
 William, drove along the shore the cattle belonging to 
 the two families in the boats, and to four other families 
 which were to join them in the spring. From the mouth 
 of the Canisteo to the upper flats, the movement was 
 tedious and toilsome. Frequent rifts were to be as- 
 cended, and the channel was often to be cleared of ob- 
 
61 
 
 structions, the trunks of trees and dams of drift-wood. 
 On one day, they made but six miles. However, as 
 the destinies, after forty centuries of hesitation, had 
 decided that Upper Canisteo must be civilized, all 
 obstacles were steadily surmounted. At the rifts, 
 where the nose of the unwieldy boat, plowing under 
 the water, at last wheeled about in spite of setting 
 poles and swearing, and went down again to the foot of 
 the rapids, every human thing that could pull, went 
 on shore, took hold of a long rope, and hauled the 
 barge up by main force. Thus for some three days 
 the pioneers of Canisteo toiled up the hostile current, 
 probably not without some little noise, as the shouting 
 of boatmen, or the bawling of the youths on shore at 
 the straggling cattle, which sometimes got entangled 
 in the willow thickets by the little river, sometimes 
 scrambled up the hill sides, sometimes stopped, shak- 
 ing their horns in affright, when the wolf or fox bounded 
 across the trail, or came racing back in paroxysms of 
 terror, making the gorge to resound with strange bel- 
 lowings, when they suddenly met the ugly and growling 
 bear, sitting like a foot-pad upon his haunches in the 
 middle of the path, and so near to their unsuspecting 
 nostrils, that he might cuff the face of the forward bul- 
 lock with his paw, before the startled cattle became 
 aware that they had ventured into the lurking-place of 
 the shaggy brigand. 
 
 At length the persevering voyagers landed on the 
 
 upper flats. The astonished cattle found themselves 
 
 almost smothered in the herbage of the meadows. The 
 
 first thing to be devised was, of course, a habitation. 
 
 7 
 
62 
 
 The bark hut of the savage was the only structure 
 which the wilderness had yet beheld, and was un- 
 doubtedly a sufficient house for cannibals or philoso- 
 phers ; but the pioneers, who were neither the former 
 nor the latter, went straightway into the woods, cut 
 down certain trees, and built a luxurious castle of logs, 
 26 feet long by 24 wide. There was but one room be- 
 low. Four fire-places were excavated in the four 
 corners, and they who know what caverns fire-places 
 were in old times, can imagine the brilliant appearance 
 ><&f this Canisteo Castle at night, through the winter, 
 when the blaze of burning logs in all the furnaces 
 filled the cabin with light, and glimmering through the 
 crevices, was seen by the Indian as he walked by on 
 the crackling crust of the snow toward his lodge in the 
 woods. In the following spring a family was en- 
 camped before each of the fire-places, and occupied 
 each its own territory with as much good humour as 
 if divided from the others by stone walls and gates of 
 brass. 
 
 The two families passed here the first winter very 
 comfortably. In the spring of 1790 they were joined 
 by Solomon Bennet, Uriah Stephens, Jr., and Colonel 
 John Stephens his brother, with their families. As 
 soon as the weather permitted, they set about prepar- 
 ing the ground for seed„ Although the flat was free 
 from timber, this was no trifling task. The roots of 
 the gigantic wild grass, braided and tangled together 
 below the surface, protected the earth against the plow 
 with a net so tight and stout, that ordinary means of 
 breaking the soil failed entirely. Four yoke of oxen 
 
63 
 
 forced the coulter through this well-woven netting, and 
 the snapping and tearing of the roots as they gave way 
 before the strength of eight healthy beeves was heard 
 to a considerable distance, like the ripping of a mat. 
 The settlers never learned the origin of these mea- 
 dows. " Captain John the Indian" said that he knew 
 nothing of their origin ; they were cleared " before 
 the time of his people." After the frosts, when the 
 herbage had become dry and crisp, the grass was set 
 on fire, and a very pretty miniature of a prairie-on-fire 
 it made. The flames flashed over the flats almost as 
 over a floor strewn with gunpowder. A swift horse 
 could not keep before them. The wild grass, by suc- 
 cessive mowings and burning, became less rank and 
 more nutritious. In time it gradually changed to 
 " tame grass," and at the present day there are mea- 
 dows on the Canisteo which have never been broken 
 by the plow. 
 
 After the sowing of Spring wheat and the planting 
 of the corn, the settlers constructed a log fence on a 
 scale as magnificent, considering their numbers, as 
 that of the Chinese wall. This ponderous battlement 
 enclosed nearly four hundred acres of land. The flats 
 were divided among the proprietors. From the pre- 
 sent site of Bennetsvi'lle down to the next township, a 
 distance of about six miles, twelve lots were laid out 
 from hill to hill across the valley, and assigned by lot 
 to the several proprietors. The lot upon which the 
 first house was built is known as the " Bennet" or 
 " Pumpelly farm." That part of it upon which the 
 house stood is upon the farm of Mr. Jacob Doty. In 
 
64 
 
 the course of the same spring (1790) Jedediah Ste- 
 phens, John Redford, and Andrew Bennet settled in 
 the neighborhood. Jedediah Stephens, afterwards well 
 known to the citizens of the county, was a faithful and 
 respected preacher of the Baptist denomination. His 
 house was for many years the resort of missionaries 
 and religious travellers who passed through the valley, 
 and indeed was said to be one of the few places where 
 pilgrims of a serious disposition, and not inclined to 
 join the boisterous company of the neighborhood, could 
 find lodgings entirely to their satisfaction. 
 
 The harvest abundantly attested the fertility of the 
 valley. Seventy or seventy-five bushels of corn were 
 yielded to the acre. Indeed, the timbered flats have 
 been known to yield seventy-five bushels of corn, 
 planted with the hoe after logging. They sent their 
 grain in canoes to Shepherd's Mill, on the Susquehan- 
 na, a short distance above Tioga Point, and nearly one 
 hundred miles distant from Canisteo. 
 
 A few random notes of the settlement of this neigh- 
 borhood may be added. Solomon Bennet was one of 
 its leading spirits. He was a hunter of renown, and 
 bequeathed his skill and good fortune to his sons, who 
 became well known citizens of the county, and were 
 famous for readiness with the knife and rifle, and for 
 " perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment" (or better) 
 touching traps. Mr. Bennet built, in 1793, the first 
 grist mill on the Canisteo. It stood (and also a saw- 
 mill we are told) on Bennet's creek, about half a mile 
 from its mouth. It stood but a year or two when it 
 was, unfortunately, burned to the ground. This mill 
 
65 
 
 was resorted to sometimes by the citizens of Bath. 
 Early settlers remember how the pioneer boys came 
 over the hills, through the unbroken woods, with their 
 ox-drays, and retain vividly the image of a distin- 
 guished settler who came over from the Pine Plains 
 with " his little brown mare and a sheepskin to ride 
 upon" after a bag of corn-meal to keep ofif starvation. 
 Flour was sometimes sent by canoes down the Canis- 
 teo and up the Conhocton. After the burning of the 
 mill, the settlers were again compelled to send their 
 grain in canoes to Shepherd's Mill. Mr. Bennet went 
 to New York to purchase machinery for a new mill, 
 but became engaged in other business, and failed to 
 minister to the urgent necessity of his neighbors. 
 George Hornell (afterwards well known as Judge Hor- 
 nell) settled in Canisteo in 1793. He was induced to 
 build a mill on the site now occupied by the present 
 Hornellsville Mills. So impatient were the settlers for 
 the erection of the building, that they turned out and 
 prepared the timber for it voluntarily. 
 
 The first goods were sold by Solomon Bennet. Judge 
 Hornell and William Dunn visited the neighborhood 
 at an early day for trade with the Indians. James 
 McBurney, of Ireland, first came to Canisteo as a 
 pedler. He bought Great Lot, No. 12, in the lower 
 township of Bennet, and other lands ; went to Ireland, 
 and upon his return settled some of his countrymen 
 on his lands. 
 
 Christopher Hulburt and Nathaniel Cary settled in 
 1795 at Arkport. The former ran, in 1800 or about 
 that time, the first ark laden with wheat that descend- 
 7* 
 
66 
 
 ed the Canisteo, and about the same time John Morrison 
 ran the first raft. The honor of piloting the first craft 
 of the kind out of the Canisteo, however, is also claimed 
 for Benjamin Patterson. 
 
 Dr. Nathan Hallett, Jeremiah Baker, Daniel Purdy, 
 Oliver Harding, Thomas Butler, J. Russelman, the 
 Upsons, the Stearns, and the Dykes also were among 
 the earliest settlers on the upper Canisteo. 
 
 The first taverns were kept in the year 1800, or 
 about that time, by Judge Hornell, at his mills, and by 
 Jedediah Stephens below Bennet's Creek. The first 
 house in Hornellsville stood upon the site of Mr Hugh 
 Magee's Hotel. 
 
 Under the old organization of the County of Ontario, 
 the settlement of Canisteo was in the town of William- 
 son, which comprised a large part of what is now 
 Western Steuben County, Allegany County, and how 
 much more we know not. Jedediah Stephens was the 
 first Supervisor of that town, and attended the meeting 
 of the Board at Canandaigua. Town meeting was 
 held at the house of Uriah Stephens, and seven votes 
 were cast. 
 
 Solomon Bennet is said by the settlers of Canisteo 
 to have been the Captain. John Stephens, the lieu- 
 tenant, and Richard Crosby the ensign of the first 
 military company organized in Steuben County. 
 
 A large proportion of the first settlers of Canisteo 
 were from Pennsylvania, and had within them a goodly 
 infusion of that boisterous spirit and love of rough 
 play for which the free and manly sons of the back- 
 'iroods are everywhere famous. On the Susquehannh 
 
67 
 
 frontier, before the Revolution, had arisen an athletic 
 scuffling wrestling race, lovers of hard blows, sharp- 
 shooters and runners, who delighted in nothing more 
 than in those ancient sports by which the backs and 
 limbs of all stout-hearted youth have been tested since 
 the days of Hercules. The eating of bears, the 
 drinking of grog, the devouring of hominy, venison, 
 and all the invigorating diet of the frontiers; the 
 hewing down of forests, the paddling of canoes, 
 the fighting of savages, all combined to form a gene- 
 ration of yeomen and foresters, daring, rude and 
 free. Canisteo was a sprout from this stout stock, 
 and on the generous river-flats flourished with amazing 
 vigor. 
 
 Life there was decidedly Olympic. The old Pyth- 
 ian games were revived with an energy that would 
 have almost put a soul into the bones of Pindar ; and 
 although many of the details of those classic festivals 
 upon which the schoolmasters dwell with especial de- 
 light were wanting — the odes, the crowns of oak, the 
 music, and so on — nevertheless, one cannot help think- 
 ing that for the primitive boxers and sportsmen of 
 the old school, men who wore lions' hides and 
 carried clubs, the horse-play of Canisteo would have 
 been quite as entertaining as the flutes and dog- 
 gerel of Delphi. Every thing that could eat, 
 drink and wrestle, was welcome ; Turk or Tuscarora, 
 Anak, or Anthropophagus, Blue Beard or Blunder- 
 bore. A " back-hold" with a Ghoul would not have 
 been declined, nor a drinking match with a Berserkir. 
 Since the Centaurs never has there been better speci- 
 men of a " half-horse" tribe. To many of the settlers 
 
68 
 
 in other ])arts of the county who emigrated from the 
 decorous civilization of the east and south, these bois- 
 terous foresters were objects of astonishment. When 
 " Canisteer" went abroad, the public soon found it 
 out. On the Conhocton they were known to some as 
 the Six-JYations, and to the amusement and wonder 
 of young Europeans, would sometimes visit at Bath, 
 being of a social disposition, and sit all day, " sing- 
 ing, telling stories and drinking grog, and never get 
 drunk nayther." To the staid and devout they were 
 Arabs, — cannibals. Intercourse between the scattered 
 settlements of the county was of course limited mainly 
 to visits of necessity ; but rumor took the fair fame of 
 Canisteo in hand, and gave the settlement a notoriety 
 through all the land, which few " rising villages" even 
 of the present day enjoy. It was pretty well under- 
 stood over all the country that beyond the mountains 
 of Steuben, in the midst of the most rugged district 
 of the wilderness, lay a corn-growing valley which had 
 been taken possession of by some vociferous tribe, 
 whether of Mamelukes or Tartars no one could pre- 
 cisely say ; whose whooping and obstreperous laughter 
 was heard far and wide, surprising the solitudes. 
 
 The " Romans of the West" were not long in find- 
 ing out these cousins, and many a rare riot they had 
 with them. The uproars of these festivals beggar 
 description. The valley seemed a den of maniacs. 
 The savages came down four or five times in each year 
 from Squakie Hill for horse and foot-racing, and to 
 play all manner of rude sports. In wrestling, or 
 in "rough-and-tumble" they were not matches for the 
 
69 
 
 settlers, many of whom were proficients in the Susque- 
 hanna sciences, and had been regularly trained in all 
 the wisdom of the ancients. The Indians were power- 
 ful of frame and of good stature. The settlers agree 
 that " they were quick as cats, but the poor critters 
 had no system." When fairly grappled, the Indians 
 generally came off second best. They were slippery 
 and " limber like snakes," oiling themselves freely, 
 and were so adroit in squirming out of the clinch of 
 the farmers, that it was by no means the most trifling 
 part of the contest to keep the red antagonist in the 
 hug. 
 
 In these wrestling matches, Elias Stephens was the 
 champion. He was called the " smartest Stephens on 
 the river," and was in addition claimed by his friends 
 as the " smartest" man in the country at large. No 
 Indian in the Six Nations could lay him on his back. 
 A powerful young chief was once brought by his tribe 
 from Tonewanta to test the strength of the Canisteo 
 Champion. He had been carefully trained and exer- 
 cised, and after '' sleeping in oiled blankets" for sev- 
 eral nights, was brought into the ring. Stephens grap- 
 pled with him. At the first round the chief was hurled 
 to the ground with a thigh-bone broken. His backers 
 were very angry, and, drawing their knives, threatened 
 to kill the victor. He and his friend Daniel Upson, 
 took each a sled-stake and standing back to back de- 
 fied them. The matter was finally made up, and the 
 unlucky chief was borne away on a deer-skin, stretched 
 between two poles.* In addition to this, Stephens 
 
 * Stephens was trained by a wrestler of some note living on the 
 
TO 
 
 once maintained the credit of the Canisteo by signally 
 discomfiting a famous wrestler from the Hog-back. 
 
 Foot races, long and short, for rods or miles, were fa- 
 vorite diversions. In these the Indians met with better 
 success than in wrestling ; but even in racing they did 
 not maintain the credit of their nation to their entire 
 satisfaction, for there was now and then a long-winded 
 youth among the settlers who beat the barbarians at 
 their own game. So for horse-racing, this ancient and 
 heroic pastime was carried on with a zeal that would 
 shame Newmarket. The Indians came down on these 
 occasions with all their households, women, children, 
 dogs and horses. The settlers found no occasion to 
 complain of their savage guests. They conducted 
 themselves with civility, generally, and even formed 
 in some instances, warm friendships with their hosts. 
 
 Infant Canisteo of course followed in the footsteps 
 of senior Canisteo. When fathers and big brothers 
 
 Chemung named McCormick, -who afterward was for many years a 
 citizen of this county, McCormick was a British soldier, and reputed 
 to be the most powerful and expert pugilist in the army. He de- 
 serted during the Revolutionary war and went with Arnold to Que- 
 bec. After the failure of the desperate assault on that town, Mc- 
 Cormick, with a party of American soldiers, were standing on the ice 
 of the St. Lawrence when the British approached to make them 
 prisoners. Knowing that the deserter would be hanged, if taken, 
 his comrades gathered around him in a huddle, pretending to pre- 
 pare resistance. The British parlied. In. the mean time McCormick 
 pulled off liis shoes, for " the ice was as smooth as a bottle," and ran. 
 A shower of bullets rattled around him, but he was so fortunate as 
 to escape unhurt. Captain Silas "Wheeler, late of the town of Whee- 
 ler, was in that crowd, and gives McCormick the credit of extraor- 
 dinary briskness. 
 
71 
 
 found delight in scuffling with barbarians, and in rac- 
 ing with Indian ponies, it would have been strange if 
 infant Canisteo had taken of its own accord to Belles 
 Lettres, and Arithmetic. The strange boy found him- 
 self in a den of young bears. He was promptly re- 
 quired to fight, and after such an introduction to the 
 delights of the valley, was admitted to freedom of trap 
 and fishery in all the streams and forests of the com- 
 monwealth. And for infant Canisteo, considering 
 that passion for wild life which plays the mischief 
 with boys everywere, even in the very ovens of refine- 
 ment, a more congenial region^'could not have been 
 found. The rivers and brooks alive with fish, the hills 
 stocked with deer, the groves populous with squirrels, 
 the partridges drumming in the bushes, the raccoons 
 scrambling in the tree-tops, removed every temptation 
 to run away in search of a solitary island and a man 
 Friday ; while their little ill-tempered Iroquois play- 
 fellows, with their arrow-practice, their occasional skir- 
 mishes, and their mimic war-paths, satisfied those 
 desires to escape from school to the Rocky Mountains 
 and the society of grizzly bears and Camanches, which 
 so often turn the heads of youngsters nurtured in the 
 politest of academies. 
 
 This backwoods mode of education, though by no 
 means so exquisite as our modern systems, has proved 
 nevertheless quite efficient for practical purposes. The 
 boys who in early times played with the heathen and 
 persecuted raccoons, instead of learning their gram- 
 mars have, astonishing to see, become neither pagans 
 nor idiots. Some have become farmers, some lumber- 
 
72 
 
 men, some supervisors, and some justices of the peace ; 
 and whether in the field or in the saw-mill, whether in 
 the county's august parliament, or in the chair of the 
 magistrate, the duties of all those stations seem to 
 have been performed substantially as well as needs be. 
 For the Robin Hoods of Canisteo could plow, mow, 
 and fell trees, if need be, as well as the best, and did 
 not hold laziness in higher respect than did the other 
 pioneers of the county. 
 
 The Indians made their appearance shortly after 
 the landing of the settlers — the Canisteo Valley having 
 long been a favorite hunting field. The men of Wyom- 
 ing found among them many of their old antagonists. 
 Tories never were forgiven, but the profi'ered friend- 
 ship of the Indians was accepted : old enmities were 
 forgotten, and the settlers and savages lived together 
 on the most amicable terms. Shortly after their arri- 
 val, an old Indian, afterwards well known as " Captain 
 John," made his appearance, and on seeing the elder 
 Stephens, went into a violent fit of merriment. Lan- 
 guage failed to express the cause of his amusement, which 
 seemed to be some absurd reminiscence suddenly sug- 
 gested by the sight of the settler, and the old " Roman" 
 resorted to pantomime. He imitated the gestures of 
 a man smoking — putting his hand to his mouth to with- 
 draw an imaginary pipe, then turning up his mouth 
 and blowing an imaginary cloud of smoke, then stoop- 
 ing to tie an imaginary shoe, then taking an imaginary 
 boy in his arms and running away, and returning with 
 violent peals of laughter. One of the sons of Mr. 
 Stephens, a hot and athletic youth, supposing that the 
 
73 
 
 Indian was " making fun" of his father, snatched up 
 a pounder to knock him on the head. Captain John 
 was driven from the ideal to the real, and made good 
 his retreat. He afterwards became a fast friend of the 
 settlers, and explained the cause of his merriment. 
 
 When Mr. Stephens lived near Wyoming, he was 
 one day going from his farm to the fort, with two oxen 
 and a horse, which were attached to some kind of 
 vehicle. His boy, Phineas, was riding on the horse. 
 Mr. Stephens was an inveterate smoker, and walked 
 by^the side of the oxen, puffing after the manner imi- 
 tated by Captain John. While passing through the 
 woods near a fork of the roads, his shoe stuck in the 
 mud, and was drawn off his foot. Just as he stooped 
 to recover it, a rifle was fired from the bushes, which 
 killed the nigh ox, by the side of which he had been 
 walking. The alarm of " Indians /" was sounded 
 from the other branch of the road, where some of his 
 neighbors were killed. Mr. Stephens started and ran, 
 but his boy crying out, " Don't leave me, father !" he 
 returned and took him in his arms, and fled to the 
 fort. The ambushed rifleman was none other than 
 Captain John, and he, recognizing the smoker fifteen 
 years after the adventure, was quite overpowered at 
 the recollection of the joke. 
 
 Another meeting of two old enemies took place on 
 the banks of the Canisteo not long afterwards. Major 
 Moses Van Campen, (late of Dansville, Livingston 
 County,) well known to the Six Nations as a powerful, 
 daring and sagacious ranger in the border wars of 
 Pennsylvania, moved up the river with a colony des- 
 8 
 
74 
 
 tined for Allegany Count}", and offered to land at 
 the settlement on Canisteo Flats. Van Campen was 
 especially obnoxious to the Indians for the part he had 
 taken as a leader of a bold and destructive attack, 
 made in the night, by himself and two others, prisoners, 
 (Pence and Pike by name,) upon the party by which 
 they had been captured in an incursion against the 
 settlements, in which Van Campen's father and young 
 brother had been killed before his own eyes. There 
 were ten Indians in the party. One evening, while 
 encamped at Wyalusing Flats, on their way to Niagara, 
 Van Campen resolved to put in execution a long medi- 
 tated plan of escape. He managed to conceal under 
 his foot a knife which had been dropped by an Indian, 
 and with this, at midnight, the prisoners cut them- 
 selves loose. They stole the guns from their sleeping 
 enemies, and placed them against a tree. Pike's heart 
 failed him, and he laid down just as the two allotted 
 to him for execution awoke and were arising. Van 
 Camping, seeing that '' their heads were turned up 
 fair," killed them with a tomahawk, and three besides. 
 Pence killed four with the guns. Van Campen struck 
 his hatchet into the neck of the only remaining Indian, 
 a chief named Mohawk, who turned and grappled with 
 him. A desperate and doubtful struggle followed, one 
 being sometimes uppermost and sometimes the other. 
 Van Campen was half blinded by the blood of his 
 wounded antagonist, who felt, as often as he got oppor- 
 tunity, for the knife in his belt. This would have soon 
 settled the contest, and Van Campen finally stuck his 
 
76 
 
 toe^ into tbe Indian's Lelt and hoisted him off. The 
 latter bounded into tbe woods and escaped. 
 
 Tbe savages recognized Van Campen on bis arrival 
 at Canisteo as " tbe man that lent John Mohawk tbe 
 hatchet." Captain Mohawk himself was there, and 
 had a special cause of grievance to exhibit in a neck 
 set slightly awry from the blow of tbe tomahawk. The 
 settlers rallied for the defence of Van Campen. There 
 was every prospect of a bloody fight ; but after much 
 wrangling it was agreed that the two parties should 
 divide while Van Campen and Mohawk advanced be- 
 tween them to hold a " talk." This was done, and in 
 a conference of considerable length between the two 
 old antagonists, the causes of difficulty were discussed, 
 and it was finally decided that each was doing his duty 
 then^ but that now war being ended, they ought to for- 
 get past injuries. Mohawk offered his hand. The 
 threatened fight became a feast. A keg of spirits was 
 broken and tbe hills rang with riot.* 
 
 The Indians sometimes entertained the men of Ca- 
 nisteo with a display of their military circumstance, 
 and marched forth on the flats, to tbe number of three 
 hundred warriors, in full costume, to dance the grand 
 war-dance. They made a fire about eight rods long 
 
 * Mohawk was a noble warrior, — a Roman indeed. See Stone's 
 Life of Brant (somewhere in the second volume) for an incident 
 which occurred in the captivity of the gallant Capt, Alexander Har- 
 per. The " single voice " which responded with " the death yell " 
 was Mohawk's without doubt. " The name of this high-souled war- 
 rior " is not lost, as Col. Stone feared. The biographer of Van Cam- 
 pen makes out a satisfactory case for Captain Mohawk. 
 
76 
 
 )araded around it with hideous chants and a great 
 clatteringoFTittle deer-skin drums. On one of these 
 grand field-days, the Avhole tribe, arrayed most fantas- 
 tically, was marching around the fire, and with the 
 flourishing of knives, the battering of drums, and the 
 howling of war son^s^Jiajd worked themselves up into 
 a brilliant state"^fexcitement. The settlers, boys and 
 men, were standing near watching the performance, 
 when a high-heeled young savage stepped out of the 
 line and inquired of one of the bystanders — 
 
 " What's your name ? " 
 
 The settler informed him. 
 
 " D d liar ! d d hog ! " said the Indian. 
 
 Elias Stephens, who was a prompt and high tem- 
 pered youth, said, " Daniel, I wish he would just ask 
 me that question." 
 
 The Indian instantly turned and said, 
 
 '' What's your name 1 " 
 
 "Elias Stephens." 
 
 " D d liar ! d d " 
 
 The sentence remains unfinished up to the present 
 date. A well-planted blow of the fist knocked the 
 barbarian headlong over the fire, senseless. The sen- 
 sation for a moment was great. The dance was stopped, 
 the drums became dumb ; tomahawks and knives w^ere 
 brandished no longer, and the savages stood aloof in 
 such angry astonishment, that the bystanders trembled 
 for their skulls. The Chief however came forward, 
 and striking Stephens approvingly on the shoulders, 
 said, " Good enough for Indian." He expected his 
 warriors to behave themselves like gentlemen, and 
 
17 
 
 when copper-colored gentlemen so far forgot themselves 
 as to use indelicate or personal language, he would 
 thank pale-faced gentlemen to knock them over the 
 fire, or through the fire, or into the fire.^ as it might 
 he most convenient. The dance went on with renewed 
 vigor, hut the punished pagan descended from his high 
 horse and sat aside in silence, volunteering during the 
 rest of the entertainment no more flourishes not pro- 
 mised " on the bills." 
 
 Sometimes the Indians treated the settlers to a dis- 
 play of their tactics. Hiding behind a rampart of roots 
 or lying in ambush among the bushes, at a signal given 
 the whole party fired their rifles at certain imaginary 
 foes. The chief sprang up and raised the war-whoop, 
 and then the three hundred joined in that frightful cry 
 of the Six Nations, which, to use the favorite phrase 
 of the pioneers, " was enough to take the hair off a 
 man's head." Then, rushing out, they tomahawked the 
 pumpkins and scalped the turnips, then dodged back 
 to their covert and lay still as snakes. 
 
 Elias Stephens, for his prowess and resolution, be- 
 came an object of respect to the red gentry. Four- 
 teen men were working in Bennett's millyard when 
 sixteen " Romans" came down whooping furiously, and 
 drove the lumbermen from their work, took possession 
 of the mill, and converted it into a dancing saloor. It 
 was told to Stephens. ^' What !" said he, " you four- 
 teen let sixteen of those critters drive you out of the 
 yard ! Lord ! I can whip a hundred Indians." And 
 taking the swingle of a flail ran to the mill. The In- 
 dians were capering about in high glee, brandishing 
 8* 
 
78 
 
 their knives and shrieking very like Mark Antony and 
 fifteen other Romans, and indulging in all those antics 
 with which the barbarians of the Log-House were wont 
 to divert themselves. 
 
 " Put up those knives, damn you, and march," said 
 Stephens. The diversions came to a sudden pause. 
 "Put up those knives, damn you, and he off, or I'll 
 beat all your brains out !" The Romans said never a 
 word, but stuck their knives into their belts and de- 
 parted. 
 
 cSETTLEMENT OF THE LOWER CANISTEO VALLEY. 
 
 Our notes of the settlement of the lower valley of 
 the Canisteo are very brief. None of the original set- 
 tlers of Addison are now living in the county. We 
 can present nothing more than the names of these 
 pioneers. The settlement of Addison was commenced 
 probably in 1790, or shortly after. The first settlers 
 were Reuben and Lemuel Searles ; John, Isaac, and 
 James Martin ; Jonathan Tracy ; William Benham ; 
 Martin Young, and Isaac Morey. 
 
 The first nam"e of the settlement was Tuscarofa. 
 This was afterwards changed to Middletown, and 
 again to Addison. 
 
 The first tavern was kept by Reuben Searles, on 
 Lockerby's stand. 
 
 George Goodhue built a saw-mill there as early as 
 1793. 
 
 The first generation of settlers, as we are informed, 
 has become extinct. Messrs. William Wombaugh, 
 
79 
 
 William B. Jones, John and Stephen Towsley, and 
 Rev. Tarathmel Powers, though early settlers, came 
 in a few years after the first settlement. 
 
 The pioneers of the town of Cameron were Joseph 
 Warren, John Helmer, Samuel Baker, and Andrew 
 Helmer. 
 
 This meagre notice of the settlement of the valley 
 below the present town of Canisteo is the most com- 
 plete that could be obtained from the best authorities 
 to whom the writer was referred. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TIOGA VALLEY. 
 
 The first settlements in the Tioga Valley were made 
 just over the Pennsylvania line, in the neighborhood of 
 Lawrenceville. Samuel Baker, afterwards of Plea- 
 sant Valley, in this county, settled upon the open flat, 
 at the mouth of the Cowenisque Creek, in 1787, and 
 not long afterwards a few other settlers, the Stones, 
 the Barneys and the Daniels, who also afterwards re- 
 moved to Pleasant Valley, erected cabins in the wild 
 grass and hazel bushes of the vicinity. 
 
 Col. Eleazer Lindley, a native of New Jersey, and 
 an active officer of the "Jersey Blues" during the 
 Revolutionary War, rode through the Genesee country 
 previous to the year 1790, to find a tract of land where 
 he might establish himself, and gather his children 
 around him. The sickliness of the regions around Se- 
 neca and Canandagua Lakes deterred him from locat- 
 ing his township in the rich northern plains, and he 
 purchased township number one of the second range. 
 
80 
 
 a rugged and most unpromising tract for agricultural 
 purposes, but intersected by the fine valley of the Tio- 
 ga. The healthy hills, the pure springs, and the clear 
 beautiful river, descending from the ravines of the 
 Alleganies, promised, if not wealth, at least freedom 
 from those fevers, agues, cramps and distempers, which 
 prostrated the frames and wrenched the joints of the 
 unfortunate settlers in the northern marches. 
 
 In the spring of 1790, Col. Lindley started from 
 New Jersey with a colony of about forty persons, who, 
 with their goods, were transported in wagons to the 
 Susquehanna. At Wilkesbarre the families and bag- 
 gage were transferred to seven-ton boats and poled up 
 the river, according to the practice of emigrants pene- 
 trating Ontario county by that valley ; while the horses 
 and cattle, of which there were thirty or forty, were 
 driven along the trails, or rude roads, on the bank. 
 On the 7th day of June, 1790, the colony reached the 
 place of destination. 
 
 Two sons of Col. Lindley, Samuel and Eleazer, and 
 five sons-in-law, Dr. Mulford, Ebenezer Backus, Capt. 
 John Seely, Dr. Hopkins and David Payne, started 
 with the colony from New Jersey. Dr. Hopkins re- 
 mained at Tioga Point to practice his profession. The 
 others settled near Col. Lindley. 
 
 The river-flats were "open," and overgrown with 
 strong wild grass and bushes. Ploughs were made by 
 the settlers after their arrival, and as soon as these 
 were finished, the flats were immediately broken, as 
 on the Canisteo, with four oxen to each plough. The 
 season was so far advanced, that the crop of corn was 
 
81 
 
 destroyed by frost, but a great harvest of buckwheat 
 was secured. With buckwheat, milk and game, life 
 was stayed during the first winter. History, looking 
 sharply into the dim vale of ancient Tioga, smiles to 
 see the image of " Old Pomp," a negro pounding buck- 
 wheat in a samp-mortar, from the first ice in Novem- 
 ber till the breaking up of the rivers in March, when 
 canoes can find a passage to Shepard's Mill, on the 
 Susquehanna. History also, in this connection, will 
 embrace the opportunity to rescue Old Pomp from ob- 
 livion for the notable exploit of killing four bucks at a 
 shot, and has the pleasure, therefore, of handing the 
 said Pompey down to future generations as a fit sub- 
 ject for as much admiration as an intelligent and pro- 
 gressive race ma}^ think due to the man who laid low, 
 with a musket at one shot, four fine bucks, as they 
 were standing in the water. 
 
 Colonel and Mrs. Lindley were members of the 
 Presbyterian Church, at Morristown, in New Jersey. 
 In his settlement the Sabbath was strictly observed. 
 Travelling missionaries were always welcomed, and 
 when none such were present, the settlers were collected 
 tohear a sermon read by Col. Lindley himself. In 1793, 
 Col. Lindley was elected a member of the Legislature, 
 and while attending the session of that body died in 
 New York. Numerous descendants of Col. L. live in 
 the neighborhood settled by him. His son, Hon. Elea- 
 zer Lindley, was, for several years, a Judge of the 
 County Court. He died in 1825. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE GREAT AIR CASTLE — THE CITY BUILDERS — CAP- 
 TAIN WILLIAMSON — NORTHUMBERLAND THE GERMAN 
 
 COLONY THE PASSAGE OF THE GERMANS THROUGH 
 
 THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 While our foremost pioneers were reaping their 
 first harvests in the valleys of the Canisteo and Che- 
 mung, great schemes were on foot in the Capital of the 
 British Empire for the invasion of the Genesee wilder- 
 ness. An officer of the royal army had conceived a 
 splendid project for the foundation of a city in the 
 midst of the forest, and, sustained by men of wealth 
 in London, was about to penetrate its inmost thickets 
 to raise up a Babylon amongst the habitations of the 
 owl and the dragon. 
 
 The first purchasers of the Indian territory between 
 the Genesee River and Seneca Lake had sold an im- 
 mense estate to Robert Morris, the merchant. Morris 
 had offered his lands for sale in the principal cities of 
 Europe. The representations of his agents gained 
 much attention from men of capital, and three gentle- 
 men of London, Sir William Pulteney, John Hornby, 
 and Patrick Colquhoun, purchased that noble estate 
 which has since borne the name of the English Baronet. 
 Their agent, Captain Charles Williamson, visited 
 
83 
 
 America, and excited by the reports transmitted by 
 him, the associates indulged in brilliant dreams of the 
 destiny of the wilderness which had fallen into their 
 hands. 
 
 It was plain to see that the noblest forest of the 
 Six Nations was soon to pass from the hands of those 
 unfortunate tribes. This magnificent woodland, en- 
 closed on three sides by Lakes Erie and Ontario, and 
 that chain of rivers and slender lakes which divides 
 our State into Central and Western New York, was 
 already invaded by the forerunners of civilization. 
 Traders had established themselves on the great trails. 
 Explorers had marked cascades for the mill-wheel, and 
 council groves for the axe. Tribe after tribe had first 
 wavered and then fallen before the seductions of the 
 merchant and the commissioner, and it was easy to see, 
 that against the temptations of rifles and red rags and 
 silver dollars, the expostulations of the native orators, 
 who besought the clans to hold forever their ancient 
 inheritance, would be powerless. Uneasy emigration 
 was already pressing the borders of the whole western 
 country, and, like water about to flood the land, was 
 leaking through the barriers of the wilderness at every 
 crevice. Wyoming rifles were already cracking among 
 the hills of Canisteo. New England axes were already 
 ringing in the woods of Onondaga and Genesee, and 
 most fatal of all signs, a land-ogre from Massachusetts 
 sat in his den at Canadarque, carving the princely do- 
 main of the Senecas into gores and townships, while 
 the wild men could but stand aside, some in simple 
 
84 
 
 wonder, others with Roman indignation, to see the par- 
 tition of their inheritance. 
 
 It is not difficult to see what will be the end of this, 
 thought the British castle builders. In half a century 
 the wild huntsmen will be driven to the solitudes of the 
 Ohio. This wonderful forest will have fallen, and 
 men of Celtic blood and Saxon sinews will have pos- 
 sessed themselves of a land of surpassing richness. A 
 city of mills will stand by the cataracts of Genesee. 
 A city of warehouses at the foot of Lake Erie will re- 
 ceive at her docks the barges of traders from the illim- 
 itable western wilderness. Fields of fabulous fertility 
 will bask in the sunlight where now the whooping pagan 
 charges the bear in his thicket. Numberless villages 
 by the rivers and secluded lakes will raise their steeples 
 above the tree tops, while immeasurable farms will 
 stretch from the shore of Ontario to the abutment of 
 the Alleganies, and even thrust their meadows far 
 within the southern ravines and hemlock gorges like 
 tongues of the sea thrust far inland. It will be a re- 
 gion of exceeding beauty and of unbounded wealth. 
 
 They further considered the avenues by which this 
 western Canaan might communicate with the world 
 without, and through which her products might pass to 
 the sea-board. The maps revealed four natural ave- 
 nues for commerce. One, in the north, led to New- 
 foundland fogs and the icebergs of Labrador. The 
 second, opening in the hills of Cattaraugus, conducted 
 to Mississippi marshes and the Gulf of Mexico. The 
 third offered itself in the north-east, where by tedious 
 beating and portages, one might get into the Mohawk 
 
85 
 
 and float slowly down to New York Bay. But in the 
 south-west, the Susquehanna thrust a branch almost 
 to the centre of the Genesee country — a small but nav- 
 igable river, the beginning of swift waters which might 
 bear ponderous cargoes in five days to the head of 
 Chesapeake Bay. Men of judgment and experience, 
 the statesmen and commercial prophets of the time, 
 pointed to this river as the destined highway of the 
 west. According to the best of human calculation, the 
 products of the Genesee, instead of being entrusted to 
 the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, or the perplexing 
 channels of the Oswego and Mohawk, would inevitably 
 seek this convenient valley, to be stowed in the rough 
 river-craft, which, gliding down the swift waters of the 
 Conhocton and Chemung, might enter on the second 
 day the Susquehanna, and riding safely over the 
 foaming rapids, plow in a week, the tide water of the 
 ocean. Furthermore, if in the course of centuries, 
 civilized men penetrate those vast and wonderful wilds 
 beyond the lakes, by what other road than this, is the 
 surplus of Michigan and the north-west to reach the 
 Atlantic '? The belief was not without foundation. 
 Looking at the maps, even at this day, and observing 
 how the north-western branch of the Susquehanna 
 penetrates western New York, it would seem that but 
 for the disastrous interference of the Erie canal and 
 the unfortunate invention of railroads, the Conhocton 
 valley might have been the highway of an immense 
 commerce, and the roads leading to the port at the head 
 of her navigable waters might have been trampled by 
 tremendous caravans. 
 9 
 
86 
 
 The imagination of the castle-builders was fired at 
 this prospect. Such a flood, they argued, like the 
 Abysinnian waters that swell the Nile, must enrich the 
 valley through which it flows. In the midst of this 
 valley must be a city — Alcairo of the West. Thither 
 will all people flow. Caravans such as the deserts 
 have never seen, will meet in its suburbs. Its market 
 places will present all that picturesque variety of garb 
 and manner which interest the traveller in an oriental 
 sea-port. There will be seen the Canadian and his 
 pony from the beaver dams of the upper province, the 
 Esquimaux with his pack of furs from Labrador, the 
 buffalo-hunter from the illimitable plains of Illinois, 
 the warrior from Maumee, and the trapper from the 
 Grand Sault, while merchants from the old Atlantic 
 cities will throng the buzzing bazaars, and the European 
 traveller will look with amazement on the great north- 
 western caravan as it rolls like an annual inundation 
 through the city gates. The river, now narrow, crook- 
 ed and choked with flood- wood, will become, by an art- 
 ful distribution of the mountain waters, a deep and 
 safe current, and will bear to the Susquehanna arks 
 and rafts in number like the galleys of Tyre of old. 
 Warehouses and mills will stand in interminable files 
 upon its banks. Steeples, monuments, pyramids, and. 
 man knows not what beside, will rise in its noble 
 squares. 
 
 This was the vision that greeted the eyes of the Bri- 
 tish adventurers ; and to found the promised metropolis 
 their agent, a Scotish officer, crossed the Atlantic and 
 went up into the wilderness clothed with plenary pow- 
 
87 
 
 €rs, and with unlimited authority over the Baronet's 
 banker. Castles of ivory and towers of glass glimmer- 
 ed in his eyes far away among the pines. A more 
 brilliant bubble never floated in the sunshine. A more 
 stupendous air castle never shone before human eyes. 
 Would the glorious bubble submit to be anchored to 
 hills, or would it rise like a balloon and float away 
 through the air ? Could the grand wavering air castle 
 be made stone, and was it possible to change the va- 
 pors, the fogs, the moonshine, the red olouds and rain- 
 bows, out of which such atmospherical structures are 
 made into brick and marble? If any man was fit to 
 attempt such a chemical exploit, it was the one en- 
 trusted by the associates with its execution. 
 
 Charles Williamson, the first agent of the Pulteney 
 Estate, was a native of Scotland. He entered the 
 British army in youth, and during the Revolutionary 
 war held the commission of Captain in the twenty-fifth 
 regiment of foot. His regiment was ordered to America, 
 but on the passage Captain Williamson was captured 
 by a French privateer. He remained a prisoner at 
 Boston till the close of the war. On his return to 
 Europe, he made the acquaintance of the most distin- 
 guished public men of England, and was often consult- 
 ed concerning American aflairs. On the organization 
 of the association of Sir William Pulteney and the 
 others, he was appointed its agent, and entered zeal- 
 ously into the schemes for colonizing the Genesee 
 Forest. Captain Williamson was a man of talent, 
 hope, energy and versatility, generous and brave of 
 spirit, swift and impetuous in action, of questionable 
 
88 
 
 discretion in business, a lover of sport and excitement, 
 and well calculated by his temperament and genius to 
 lead the proposed enterprise. His spirit was so tem- 
 pered with imagination, that he went up to the wilder- 
 ness, not with the dry and dogged resolution of one ex- 
 pecting a labor of a lifetime in subduing the savage 
 soil, but in a kind of chivalrous dashing style, to head 
 an onslaught amongst the pines, and to live a Baron 
 of the Backwoods in his Conhocton Castle, ruling over 
 forests and rivers, after the manner of the old Norman 
 nobles in England. 
 
 Having landed in Baltimore in 1791, and taken the 
 steps required by our naturalization laws, he received 
 in his own name, from Robert Morris, a conveyance of 
 the Pulteney estate, and begun immediately his prepar- 
 ations for the colonization of the estate. Of these pre- 
 liminary movements, there is but little to be said. It 
 appears that he corresponded extensively with men 
 whom he sought to engage in his enterprise, that he 
 opened communication with many planters of Virginia 
 and Maryland, proposing a transfer of themselves and 
 their households from the worn-out plantations of the 
 South, to the fresh woods of the Genesee ; that he 
 travelled much through the country and made active 
 exertions by personal application and by advertisement 
 to induce farmers and emigrants of the better sort from 
 Great Britain to settle upon his Northern lands. 
 
 He established his centre of organization and corres- 
 pondence at the village of Northumberland, situated 
 on the Susquehanna, at the mouth of the West Branch 
 of that river, then a place of much consequence, and 
 
89 
 
 one which at this day, though somewhat decayed, retains 
 an ancient and old fashioned respectability of appearance 
 not to be seen in the dashing young town of New York, 
 west of the Mohawk. To this old town we owe at least 
 civility. For a time, during the infancy of our county, 
 it was one great reliance against starvation and naked- 
 ness. It supplied us with flour when we had no grain, 
 with pork when we had no meat, with clothes when we 
 were unclad, with shoes when we were unshod. It 
 sent us our mails, it fitted out caravans of emigrants, 
 it received with hearty cheer our gentlemen when 
 weary of riding over the desolate Lycoming road. 
 Many impudent villages of the north, which now like 
 high-headed youngsters keep their fast telegraphs, 
 smoke anthracite coal, and drive their two-minute 
 locomotives, as if they inherited estates from their an- 
 cestors, were, if the truth must be told, once shabby 
 and famished settlements, and when faint and perish- 
 ing were saved from actual starvation by this portly 
 old Susquehanna farmer, who sent out his hired men 
 with baskets of corn, and huge shoulders of pork, 
 with orders to see to it that not a squatter went 
 hungry. By extraordinary good luck these lean 
 squatters became suddenly rich, and now arrayed in 
 very flashy style, with Gothic steeples and Moorish 
 pavilions, and all such trumpery, driving their fine 
 chariots, and smoking their sheet-iron funnels, they 
 laugh most impertinently, and we may say ungratefully 
 at the old Quaker who had compassion on them, when 
 they lay starving in the underbrush. These things, 
 let the lumberman remember, when from his raft he 
 
90 
 
 sees the white steeple of Northumberland relieved 
 against the dark precipice beyond ; the west branch 
 meanwhile pouring its flood into the lordly Susquehanna, 
 and renowned Shemokinn Dam, the Charybdis of pilots, 
 roaring below. 
 
 In the winter after his arrival in America, Captain 
 Williamson made a visit to the Genesee by way of 
 Albany and the Mohawk. In the upper valley of the 
 Mohav/k he passed the last of the old settlements. 
 From these old German farms the road was but a lane 
 opened in the woods, passable only on horseback, or in 
 a sledge. A few cabins, surrounded by scanty clear- 
 ings, were the only indications of civilization which met 
 his eye, till he stood amongst a group of cabins at the 
 foot of Seneca Lake. The famed Genesee estate was 
 before him. Surely few city builders of ancient or 
 modern times have gazed upon districts which offered 
 less encouragement to them than did the wild Iroquois 
 forest to the hopeful Scot. A little settlement had 
 been commenced at Canandaigua. The Wadsworths 
 were at Big Tree. The disciples of Jemima Wilkin- 
 son, the prophetess, had established their new Jerusa- 
 lem on the outlet of Crooked Lake, and, scattered 
 through the vast woods, a few hundred pioneers were 
 driving their axes to the hearts of the tall trees, and 
 waging war with the wolves and panthers. Beyond 
 the meadows of the Genesee Flats was a forest as yet 
 unknown to the axe, which harbored tribes of savages 
 wavering betwixt war and peace. British garrisons, 
 surly from discomfiture, occupied the forts at Oswego 
 and Niagara; colonies of Tories, including in their 
 
91 
 
 numbers men of infamous renown, dwelt on the frontiers 
 of Canada, on lands allotted to them by the crown, 
 and there were not wanting those amongst the military 
 and political agents of the provincial government who 
 incited the jealous barbarians to the general slaughter 
 of the backwoodsmen. 
 
 Wilderness upon wilderness was before him. Wil- 
 derness surrounded the white ice-bound lakes above 
 Erie, and spread over plains and mountains to the 
 fabulous prairies of which the Indians told tales too 
 wonderful for belief. The British troops and a few 
 French settlers near Detroit, with a few traders and 
 agents amongst the Ohio tribes, were the only civilized 
 occupants of the far west. In the southern districts 
 of the estate there were small settlements on the 
 Chemung and the Canisteo, accessible only from below 
 by the rivers. There were settlements on the upper 
 Susquehanna and at Tioga Point. 
 
 In the following summer Captain Williamson de- 
 termined to open a high road from Northumberland to 
 the Genesee. The only road leading to the north from 
 the mouth of the West Branch followed the valley of 
 the Susquehanna, which at this point, to one going 
 above, begins a long and unnecessary ramble to the 
 east. A direct road to the Genesee would cross a 
 ridge of the Alleganies. An Indian trail, often trod 
 during the Revolution by parties from the fastnesses 
 of the Six Nations, ran over the mountains ; but to open 
 a road through the shattered wilderness, which would 
 be passable for wagons, was deemed impossible. After 
 a laborious exploration, however, by the agent and a 
 
92 
 
 party of Pennsylvanian Hunters, a road was located 
 from " Ross Farm" (now Williamsport) to the mouth 
 of Canascraga Creek,' on the Genesee, a distance of 
 one hundred and fifty miles. This road was opened 
 in the ensuing autumn by a party of German 
 emigrants. 
 
 The fortunes of this German colony formed quite a 
 perplexing episode in Captain Williamson's history. 
 " The time when Ben Patterson brought the Germans 
 through" is yet remembered by a few of our aged 
 citizens. The simplicity, the sufferings and the terrors 
 of these Teutonic pioneers were sources of much amuse- 
 ment to the rough backwoodsmen, and their passage 
 through the wilderness and over the wild Laurel Moun- 
 tains, was in early times an event so momentous, that 
 although the matter has strictly but little reference to 
 the history of this county^ it may nevertheless be per- 
 mitted to recount their frights and tribulations. 
 
 It seems that Mr. Colquhoun, who conducted the 
 business affairs of the Association, became acquainted 
 in London with a certain Dr. Berezy, a German of edu- 
 cation and address, who engaged to collect a colony of 
 his countrymen, and conduct them to the Genesee 
 lands under the auspices of the associates. Captain 
 Williamson seems not to have favored the scheme, but 
 while living at Northumberland in 1792, the colony 
 arrived, and it fell upon him to devise some plan of 
 disposing of this very raw material to the best advan- 
 tage. There were about two hundred of them, men 
 women and children. Though stout and healthy 
 enough, they were an ignorant and inexperienced peo- 
 
98 
 
 pie, accustomed to dig with the spade in the little gar- 
 dens of the Fatherland, and as unfit for forest work and 
 the rough life of the frontiers as babes. Captain Wil- 
 liamson, with his high and hopeful spirits, did not la}^ 
 the matter deeply at heart, but encouraged the honest 
 folk, and filled their heads with fine tales, till they 
 saw almost as many balloons hanging afar off over the 
 wilderness as the enthusiastic Briton himself beheld. 
 
 It was determined to send them over the mountains 
 to the Tioga, thence by the valleys of that river and 
 of the Conhocton, to Williamsburgh, on the Genesee. 
 It was necessary to give the emigrants in charge to 
 some reliable and energetic guide, who would see to it 
 that they did not fall into the rivers, or break their 
 necks over the rocks, or be crushed by falling trees, or 
 be devoured of bears, or frightened out of their wits 
 by owls and buzzards. Benjamin Patterson, the hun- 
 ter, who was well acquainted with the German lan- 
 guage, and in whose judgment and resolution Captain 
 Williamson had entire confidence, was employed in 
 this capacity. He was abundantly provided with 
 money and means. Seven stout young Pennsylvanians, 
 well skilled in the use of the axe and the rifle, were 
 chosen by him as assistant woodsmen, and these and 
 the Germans were to open the road, while the guide, 
 in addition to his duties as commander of the column, 
 undertook to supply the camp with game. 
 
 It was in the month of September when the emi- 
 grants appeared at the mouth of Lycoming Creek? 
 ready for the march to the Northern Paradise. The 
 figure of the Guide, girt for the wilderness, with his 
 
M 
 
 hunting shirt, belt, knife and tomahawk, appeared to 
 the simple Germans rather an odd one for a shepherd 
 who was to lead them over Delectable Mountains to 
 meadows and pleasant brooks. It seemed rather like 
 the figure of some hard-headed Mr. Great-Heart, 
 arrayed with a view to such bruises as one must expect 
 in a jaunt through the land of Giant Grim and other 
 unamiable aborigines; and when the seven stalwart 
 young frontiersmen stood forth, girt in like manner, 
 for warfare or the wilderness, visions of cannibals and 
 cougars, of bears and alligators, of the bellowing 
 unicorn and the snorting hippopotamus, were vividly 
 paraded before the eyes of the startled pilgrims. 
 
 A little way up the creek they commenced hewing 
 the road. Here the Germans took their first lessons 
 in wood-craft. They were not ready apprentices, and 
 never carried the art to great perfection. We hear of 
 them in after years sawing trees down.* The heavy 
 frontier axe, (nine-pounder often,) was to them a very 
 grievous thing. They became weary and lame ; the 
 discomforts of the woods were beyond endurance, and 
 their complaints grew longer and more doleful at each 
 sunset. But in a few weeks they found themselves 
 deep in the wilderness. The roaring of torrents, the 
 murmur of huge trees, the echoes of the glens, the 
 precipices, at the feet of which ran the creeks, the 
 forests waving on the mountains, and crowding the 
 ravines like armies, were sounds and sights unknown 
 
 * " An old gentleman, who came over tlie road in an early day, 
 says the trees looked as if they had been gnawed down by beayer." — 
 Turner's Phelps and Go'rham^s Picrchase. 
 
95 
 
 to the pleasant plains of Germany. When it was 
 night, and the awful howling of the wolves all around 
 scared the children, or when the crash of great trees, 
 overturned by the high and whirling winds of autumn, 
 woke the wives from dreams of home, or when the 
 alarmed men, aroused in the mid- watches by strange 
 uproars, looked out into the darkness to see enormous 
 black clouds sailing over head, and the obscure cliffs 
 looming around, while goblins squeaked and whistled 
 in the air, and kicked the tents over, then they all 
 gave way to dismal lamentations. The equinoctial 
 storms came on in due time, and it was sufficiently dis- 
 heartening to see the dreary rains pour down hour 
 after hour, while the gorges were filled with fog, and 
 vapours steamed up from the swollen torrents, and 
 the mountains disguised themselves in masks of mist, 
 or seemed, like Laplanders, to muffle themselves in huge 
 hairy clouds, and to pull fur-caps over their faces. 
 No retreat could be hoped for. Behind them were the 
 clamorous creeks which they had forded, and which, 
 like anacondas, would have swallowed the whole colony 
 but for the Guide, who was wiser than ten serpents, 
 and outwitted them : behind them were bears, were 
 owls exceeding cruel, were wild men and giants, which 
 were only held in check by the hunter's rifle. The 
 Guide was merciless. The tall Pennsylvanians hewed 
 the trees, and roared out all manner of boisterous 
 jokes, as if it were as pleasant a thing to flounder 
 through the wilderness as to sit smoking in the quiet 
 orchards of the Rhine. 
 . They arrived at the Laurel Ridge of the Alleganies, 
 
96 
 
 "which divided the Lycoming from the head waters of 
 the Tioga. Over this, a distance of fifteen miles, the 
 road was to be opened — no great matter in itself, 
 surely, but it could hardly have been a more serious 
 thing to the emigrants had they been required to make 
 a turnpike over Chimborazo. When, therefore, they 
 toiled over these long hills, sometimes looking off 
 into deep gulfs, sometimes descending into wild hol- 
 lows, sometimes filing along the edges of precipices, 
 their sufferings were indescribable. The Guide was in 
 his element. He scoured the ravines, clambered over 
 the rocks, and ever and anon the Germans, from the 
 tops of the hills, heard the crack of his rifle in groves 
 far below, where the elk was browsing, or where the 
 painted catamount, with her whelps, lurked in the tree 
 tops. Not for wild beasts alone did the hunter's eye 
 search. He could mark with pleasure valleys and 
 mill streams, and ridges of timber : he could watch the 
 labors of those invisible artists of autumn, which came 
 down in the October nights and decorated the forests 
 with their frosty bushes, so that the morning sun found 
 the valleys arrayed in all the glory of Solomon, and 
 the dark robe of laurels that covered the ranges, 
 spotted with many colors, wherever a beech, or a ma- 
 ple, or an oak thrust its solitary head through the 
 crowded evergreens : he could smile to see how the 
 " little people" that came through the air from the 
 North Pole were pinching the butternuts that hung 
 over the creeks, and the walnuts which the squirrels 
 spared, and how the brisk and impertinent agents of 
 that huge monopoly, the Great Northern Ice Associa- 
 
97 
 
 tion, came down with their coopers and headed up the 
 pools in the forest, and nailed bright hoops around the 
 rims of the mountain ponds. The Indian Summer, so 
 brief and beautiful, set in — doubly beautiful there in 
 the hills. But the poor emigrants were too disconsolate 
 to observe how the thin haze blurred the rolling ranges, 
 and the quiet mist rested upon the many-colored val- 
 leys, or to listen to the strange silence of mountains 
 and forests, broken only by the splashing of creeks far 
 down on the rocky floors of the ravines. Certain birds 
 of omen became very obstreperous, and the clamors of 
 these were perhaps the only phenomena of the season 
 noticed by the pilgrims. Quails whistled, crows cawed, 
 jays scolded, and those seedy buccaneers, the hawks, 
 sailed over head, screaming in the most piratical man- 
 ner — omens all of starvation and death. Starvation, 
 however, was not to be dreaded immediately ; for the 
 hunter, roving like a hound from hill to hill, supplied 
 the camp abundantly with game. 
 
 The men wept, and cursed Captain Williamson bit- 
 terly, saying that he had sent them there to die. They 
 became mutinous. " I could compare my situation," 
 said the Guide, ^'to nothing but that of Moses with 
 the children of Israel. I would march them along a 
 few miles, and then they would rise up and rebel.^^ 
 Mutiny effected as little with the inflexible commander 
 as grief. He cheered up the downhearted and fright- 
 ened the mutinous. They had fairly to be driven. 
 Once, when some of the men were very clamorous, and 
 even offered violence, Patterson stood with his back 
 to a tree, and brandishing his tomahawk furiously, said 
 10 
 
98 
 
 " If you resist me, I will KILL you — every one of 
 you." Thereupon discipline was restored. 
 
 They worked along slowly enough. At favorable 
 places for encampment they built block-houses, or 
 PlocJcs, as the Germans called them, and opened the 
 road for some distance in advance before moving the 
 families further. These block -houses stood for many 
 years landmarks in the wilderness. September and 
 October passed, and it was far in November before 
 they completed the passage of the mountains. The 
 frosts were keen ; the northwesters whirled around 
 the hills, and blustered through the valleys alarmingly. 
 Then a new disaster befell them. To sit of evenings 
 around the fire smoking, and drinking of coffee, and 
 talking of the Fatherland, had been a great comfort in 
 the midst of their sorrows ; but at length the supply 
 of coffee was exhausted. The distress was wild at this 
 calamity. Even the men went about wailing and ex- 
 claimed, '* Ach Kaffee ! Kaffee ! mein lieber Kaffee !" 
 {Oh ! Coffee ! Coffee ! my dear Coffee !) How- 
 ever no loss of life followed the sudden failure of Cof- 
 fee, and the column toiled onwards. 
 
 At the place now occupied by the village of Bloss- 
 burgh, they made a camp, which, from their baker 
 who there built an oven, they called " Peter's Camp." 
 Paterson, while hunting in this neighborhood, found a 
 few pieces of coal which he cut from the ground with 
 his tomahawk. The Germans pronounced it to be of 
 good quality. A half century from that day, the hill 
 which the guide smote with his hatchet, was " punched 
 full of holes," miners were tearing out its jewels with 
 
99 
 
 pickaxes and gunpowder, and locomotives were carying 
 them northward by tons. 
 
 Pushing onward seven miles further they made the 
 ^' Canoe Camp," a few miles below the present village 
 of Mansfield. When they reached this place, their 
 supply of provisions was exhausted. The West Branch 
 youths cleared two acres of ground ; Patterson killed 
 an abundant supply of game, and went down with some 
 of his young men to Painted Post, thirty miles or 
 more below. He ordered provisions to be boated up 
 to this place from Tioga Point, and returned to the 
 camp with several canoes.* He found his poor peo- 
 ple in utter despair. They lay in their tents bewail- 
 ing their misfortunes, and said that the Englishman 
 had sent them there to die. He had sent a ship to 
 Hamburgh, he had enticed them from their homes, he 
 had brought them over the ocean on purpose that he 
 might send them out into the wilderness to starve. 
 They refused to stir, and begged Patterson to let them 
 die. But he was even yet merciless. He blustered 
 about without ceremony, cut down the tent-pole with 
 his tomahawk, roused the dying to life, and at length 
 drove the whole colony to the river bank. 
 
 Worse and worse ! When the Germans saw the 
 slender canoes, they screamed with terror, and loudly 
 refused to entrust themselves to such shells. The 
 woodsmen, however, put the women, the children and 
 
 * Some of the canoes were made at tlie camp and some were 
 pushed up from Painted Post. Capt. Charles "Wolcott, now resid- 
 ing near Corning, went up with a canoe and brought down twenty- 
 four Germans. 
 
100 
 
 the sick, into the canoes almost by main force, and 
 launched forth into the river, while the men followed by 
 land. Patterson told them to keep the Indian trail, 
 but as this sometimes went back into the hills, and out 
 of sight of the river, they dared not follow it for fear 
 of being lost. So they scrambled along the shore as 
 best they could, keeping their eyes fixed on the flotilla 
 as if their lives depended upon it. They tumbled over 
 the banks ; they tripped up over the roots ; where the 
 shores were rocky, they waded in the cold water be- 
 low. But the canoes gliding merrily downward wheel- 
 ed at last into the Chemung, and the men also, accom- 
 plishing their tedious travels along the shore, emerged 
 from the wilderness, and beheld with joy the little 
 cabins clustered around the Painted Post. 
 
 Here their troubles ended. Flour and coffee, from 
 Tioga Point, were waiting for them, and when Peter 
 the Baker turned out warm loaves from his oven, and 
 der Heber Kaffee steamed from the kettles with grateful 
 fragrance, men and women crowded around the guide, 
 hailed him as their deliverer from wild beasts and pe- 
 rilous forests, and begged his pardon for their bad 
 behaviour. 
 
 It was now December. They had been three months 
 in the wilderness, and were not in a condition to move 
 onward to the Genesee. Patterson, with thirty of the 
 most hardy men, kept on, however, and opened the 
 road up the Conhocton to Danville and the place of 
 destination. The others remained through the winter 
 of 1793 at Painted Post. " They were the simplest 
 creatures I ever saw," said an old lady ; '' they had 
 
101 
 
 a cow with them, and they loved it as if it was a child. 
 When flour was scarcest, they used to feed her with 
 bread." 
 
 The whole colony was conducted to the Genesee in 
 the spring. There was, at this time, a single settler 
 in the valley of the Conhocton, above the settlements 
 near Painted Post. The fate of the first potato crop 
 of the Upper Conhocton is worthy of record. This 
 settler had cultivated a little patch of potatoes in the 
 previous summer, and of the fruits of his labor a few 
 pecks yet remained, buried in a hole. The Germans 
 snuffed the precious vegetables and determined to have 
 them. Finding that they could be no more restrained 
 from the plunder of the potato hole than Indians from 
 massacre, Patterson told them to go on, and if the 
 owner swore at them to say, " thank\e^ thank'^eej^^ as 
 if receiving a present. This they did, and the settler 
 lost his treasures to the last potato. The Guide paid 
 him five times their value, and bade him go to Tioga 
 Point for seed. 
 
 Once they came unexpectedly upon a single Indian, 
 in the woods, boiling a mess of succotash in a little 
 kettle ; and so intent was he upon his cookery tbat he 
 did not observe the approach of the emigrants. " 1st 
 das ein wilder mann V^ (is this a wild man X) said the 
 Germans, (it was the first savage they had seen,) and 
 crowded around him with eager curiosity. He did not 
 once look up — perhaps for a display of Indian impert- 
 urbability ; but Patterson said that the poor barbarian 
 was so frightened at finding himself suddenly surround- 
 10* 
 
102 
 
 ed by a crowd of strangers, "jabbering Dutch," that 
 he dared not lift his eyes. 
 
 After manifold tribulations, the Germans were at 
 last deposited at the Genesee, with the loss of but one 
 man, who was killed in the mountains by a falling tree. 
 The subsequent fortunes of this ill-starred colony can 
 be told in few words.* 
 
 At Williamsburgh, they were abundantly provided 
 for. Each family received a house and fifty acres of 
 land, with a stock of provisions for present use, and 
 household and farming utensils. Cattle and sheep 
 were distributed amongst them, and nothing remained 
 for them to do but to fall to work and cultivate their 
 farms. Hardly a settlement in Western New York 
 had such a munificent endowment as the German set- 
 tlement on the Genesee. But it soon became apparent 
 that the leader of the colony had failed to regard the 
 instructions of Mr. Colquhoun. Instead of recruiting 
 his numbers from the sturdy and industrious Saxon 
 population, as directed, he had collected an indiscrim- 
 inate rabble from the streets of Hamburgh, not a few 
 of whom were vagabonds of the first water. They 
 were lazy, shiftless, and of the most appalling stupi- 
 dity. Breeding cattle were barbacued. Seeds, instead 
 of being planted in their fields, vanished in their ket- 
 tles ; and when provisions were exhausted. Captain 
 Williamson was called upon to despatch a file of pack- 
 horses to their relief. The emigrants were greatly 
 disappointed in the land which received them, and com- 
 plained with bitterness of the treachery that enticed 
 * Turner's Hist, of Phelps <fe Gorham's Purchase, 
 
103 
 
 them from the blessed gutters of Hamburgh, first to 
 starve in frightful mountains, and then to toil in hungry- 
 forests. 
 
 At length they broke out into open and outrageous 
 rebellion. Captain Williamson, -who was on the ground, 
 was assailed by Berezy and the rabble, and as he him- 
 self says, " nothing could equal my situation but some 
 of the Parisian scenes. For an hour and a half I was 
 in this situation, (in a corner of a store, between two 
 writing desks,) every instant expecting to be torn to 
 pieces." However, with the assistance of a few friends 
 he kept the mob at bay, till Berezy at length quelled 
 the tumult. The colonists then drove away or killed 
 all the cattle on the premises, and held a grand ca- 
 rousal. The mutiny lasted several days, till the Sheriff 
 of Ontario mustered a posse of sufficient strength, and 
 descended upon them by forced marches, and made 
 prisoner the ringleader. Berezy, in the meantime, had 
 gone to the East, where he made arrangements for the 
 removal of his colonists to Canada. This transfer was 
 at last effected, greatly to the relief of the London As- 
 sociation and their agent, to whom the colony had been, 
 from the beginning, nothing but a source of expense 
 and vexation. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENTS OF BATH — GEN. m'cLURE's 
 NARRATIVE. 
 
 Having conducted Lis Germans, at last, through the 
 wilderness, and deposited them in a Canaan where the 
 copper-colored Amalekites, and Jebusites, and Hiv- 
 ites, had consented to an extinguishment of title, and 
 were behaving themselves with marked civility, al- 
 though a few battalions of discomfited Philistians hov- 
 ered sulkily on the Canadian frontiers and glowered 
 from the bastions of Niagara and Oswego.* Captain 
 Williamson prepared to go up to the forest in person 
 and lay the foundation of a new Babylon on the banks 
 of the Conhocton. The enemies of the gallant Cap- 
 tain have intimated that instead of making the illus- 
 trious city of the Euphrates his model, he studied to 
 attain the virtues of Sodom and the graces of Gomor- 
 rah, which will be shown to be a malicious slander. 
 
 Sixteen miles above the mouth of the Conhocton, 
 the valley of the Crooked Lake, uniting nearly at right 
 angles with the river valley, opens in the hills a deep 
 and beautiful basin, which presents, when viewed 
 from an elevation, a rim of ten or fifteen miles in cir- 
 
 * The British did not evacuate those posts till 1*796. 
 
105 
 
 cuit. The British officer, standing on the almost per- 
 pendicular, yet densely wooded heights above the river, 
 south of the old church of Bath (handsomely called in 
 an early Gazetteer, " a tremendous and dismal hill/') 
 looked down upon a valley covered with a pine forest, 
 except where the alluvial flats, close at the foot of the 
 dark hemlocks of the southern range, supported their 
 noble groves of elm and sycamore, and where a little 
 round lake shone in the sunlight below the eastern 
 heights. A ring of abrupt highlands, unbroken as it 
 seemed, except by a blue gorge in the North — the 
 gateway of the gulf of Crooked Lake — imprisoned the 
 valley, and these surrounding hills, to which several 
 hundred additional feet of altitude were given by the 
 view from the southern wall, rose sometimes to the 
 dignity of mountains. The prospect is wonderfully 
 beautiful at the present day, from that place, where 
 to view his valley the Scottish Captain may have (at 
 any rate, ought to have) lain a bed of moss above the 
 rocks, which just at the summit jut over the tops of 
 the huge rough trees that cling to the side of the hill 
 even to the foot of the precipice which surmounts it. 
 But wilder and more beautiful was the picture spread 
 out before the Captain's eye. Description would re- 
 call the scene but feebly. Let each patriotic citizen, 
 however, imagine as he can how all the ranges and 
 ridges, the knobs and promontories, were covered with 
 the richness of the forest, and consider that pleasant 
 little lake just below the rising sun, how it glittered 
 among the deep-green pines, and the little river also ; 
 how it wrangled with the huge sycamores that lay 
 
106 
 
 across its channel like drunken giants, and how it was 
 •distressed with enormous, frightful roots which clung 
 to its breast with their long claws like nightmares, but 
 <}ame forth, nevertheless, from these tribulations with 
 a bright face, and sparkled delightfully among the 
 elms and willows. 
 
 In this valley the gallant city-builder determined to 
 found his metropolis. Here should all the caravans 
 of the West meet ; here should rise mills and stupen- 
 dous granaries ; here should stand the Tyre of the 
 West, sending forth yearly fleets of arks, more in num- 
 ber than the galleys of the ancient city, to make glad 
 the waters of Chesapeake. Whatever fallacy in his 
 Political Economy may have enticed the Scot hither, 
 there is certainly no place where the Demon of Busi- 
 ness, had he seen fit to build him a den in these re- 
 gions, could have been more pleasantly situated, if 
 such a consideration were worthy of the notice of his 
 dusty and bustling genius. To the propitiation of this 
 Divinity, the wealth of the Pulteneys and the labors of 
 their minister were devoted for the next two years. 
 Every device that ingenuity could suggest, every force 
 that fortune could employ, every experiment that en- 
 ergy dared attempt, were tried by the bold and efficient 
 Cadmus of the Conhocton to divest the commerce of 
 the West from the Mohawk and the Hudson, and to 
 guide it down the Northwestern Branch of the Susque- 
 ' hanna. 
 
 Western commerce has unfortunately leaked 
 through another tunnel. The Demon which we 
 worshipped, seemed, for a time, about to yield 
 
107 
 
 to our entreaties, and snuffed the incense that smoked 
 on our altar with every appearance of satisfaction. 
 As a wary bear walks seven times around the trap with 
 suspicious eyes, hesitating to bite the tempting bait, 
 yet is sometimes on the point of thrusting his nose,, 
 at a venture, within the dangerous jaws of steel, but 
 finally turns away with a growl, so this wary Caliban, 
 after long debating with himself, at last refused to set 
 foot on the pretty trap of Captain Williamson, and 
 dug himself dens in the north where he might wallow 
 in the mire of canals and marshes, and duck his head 
 in the Genesee cataract. The political economist, 
 looking at this day from the Rollway Hills, beholds a 
 melancholy spectacle. Below him is a valley of farms 
 on which a single column of the primitive pines re- 
 main like that square of the Old Guard which stood 
 for a moment after the route at Waterloo. A dark 
 and almost unbroken forest covers the hill sides, and 
 he looks down upon the streets and steeples of an idle 
 and shady shire town, surrounded by pastures or mea- 
 dows and groves, which has nothing to do but to enter- 
 tain the county's rogues and to supply the citizens 
 with law and merchandise. Neither the whistle of the 
 locomotive nor the horn of the canal pilot is heard 
 there ; the wolf has hardly deserted its environs — 
 hounds yet follow the deer in the woods around it — 
 logs are yet tumbled down the rollways above it. No 
 warehouses line the river banks — no long ranks of 
 grist-mills grumble that deep harmony so charming to 
 our ears. The gallant Captain's city somehow failed 
 to become a city. The wealth that was of right ours 
 
108 
 
 took to itself wings and flew to the east. Albany and . 
 New York, being stout and remorseless robbers, plun- 
 dered us by force. Syracuse and Utica, being no 
 older than we, stole our riches secretly, thieves that 
 they are — (thieves from infancy and by instinct, for 
 they stole their very names from a couple of decrepit 
 and toothless old cities of the other hemisphere, as 
 some young vagabonds have just conscience enough to 
 pick the pockets of blind beggars in the street) — and 
 to this day those cities stand in the face of all the 
 world bedecked with their ill-got finery. The beauti- 
 ful air-castle which shone before the eyes of the Ba- 
 ronet, after promising a great many times to become 
 marble, at last bade defiance to chemistry, rolled itself 
 up into a shapeless fog, and returned to the oxygen 
 from which it came. This is no secret, and to have 
 reserved the announcement of it till in the regular 
 course of this history it was due would have been un- 
 necessary. No body for whom the story is told would 
 have been in suspense — no body would have been 
 stunned had the fact been reserved as a kind of pero- 
 rating thunder-bolt. It is so well known to our citi- 
 zens generally that their shire town is a very imperfect 
 type of any of those ancient cities heretofore alluded 
 to, and a very modest rival of those overgrown and 
 raw-boned young giants suckled by the Demon, our 
 enemy aforementioned, along the lakes and canals, that 
 one without miraculous ingenuity will despair of work- 
 ing up its downfall into any kind of historical clap- 
 trap, to astound or terrify. The plot for the subver- 
 sion of the city of New York, failed — failed so utterly 
 
109 
 
 that but comparatively few living men know that it 
 was ever dreamed of. Sixty years after the Scottish 
 Captain looked down with great hopes upon the valley 
 of his choice, a Senator of the United States, address- 
 ing the Legislature of this State, guests of the city of 
 New York, in one of the great hotels of that metropo- 
 lis, told them of a traveller's prediction at the begin- 
 ning of this century, that the valley of the Conhocton 
 would contain the great commercial city of the west.* 
 The announcement was received with laughter by all, 
 and with astonishment by many. The laughter of the 
 Legislature of 1851 was fortunately a thing which sel- 
 dom occasioned distress to the object of it, and the 
 citizens of Steuben County were not in consequence so 
 benumbed as to make it necessary for them to discon- 
 tinue for a time their ordinary avocations. 
 
 Founders of cities should always look out for omens, 
 and of all ominous creatures they should especially 
 keep a sharp look-out for snakes, which are above all 
 things prized by soothsayers. If it be true that there 
 is more in serpents than is " dreamed of in our philo- 
 sophy," Capt. Williamson was favored with omens to 
 a degree unusual even with founders of cities. The 
 Pine Plains, (as the valley of Bath was afterwards 
 known,) were infested with multitudes of rattlesnakes. 
 Probably there was at that time no district in the 
 Western country where these dragons met with greater 
 toleration. But, in truth, toleration had little to do 
 with the matter. They had taken possession of the 
 
 *See Chap. 9, for the Speech of Mr. Senator Seward. 
 11 
 
110 
 
 vallej, and held it by tooth and nail. In length, cir- 
 cumferencej ugliness and wisdom, it is safe to say that 
 the rattlesnakes of the Pine Plains challenged compe- 
 tition. There was no one to bruise their heads but the 
 occasional Indian, and their hideous tribes increased 
 and multiplied to a degree truly discouraging to mice 
 and moles. From the little fiery serpent with ne'er a 
 rattle in his tail, up to the monstrous black and deadly 
 sluggard, coiled under the bush and ringing alarms 
 with his twenty rattles, the whole plain was given up 
 to them. When Patterson, the hunter, first visited 
 this Paradise, he was startled at their multitude. 
 Gliding from bush to bush, slipping under logs, re- 
 treating with angry colors before his path, — now coiled 
 up under a tree, when hard pressed, and wagging their 
 heads in defiance, now rattling a tail full of warnings 
 beneath the shrubs, this snakish populace inspired the 
 hunter with dread. Fairly afraid to go farther by land, 
 he took the river and waded three or four miles, till he 
 believed himself fully beyond the boundaries of this 
 habitation of dragons. Tradition says, that when the 
 plot of the village of Bath was surveyed, the number 
 of rattlesnakes killed by the surveyors passed account. 
 Tradition, however, has failed to preserve details, and 
 many rare '* snake-stories" are probably lost for ever. 
 These rattlesnakes have eluded extermination like the 
 Seminoles. Driven from the plains they betook them- 
 selves to the mountains, like the illustrious persecuted 
 :^n all ages. The steep, bold and sandy mountain, 
 from the summit of which the rising summer sun first 
 shines, is the last retreat of these once numerous tribes. 
 
Ill 
 
 Here a few wise veterans jet hide in the rocks, and 
 raise infant families under circumstances of great dis- 
 couragement. 
 
 In 1793 Col. Williamson commenced the settlement 
 of his village, called Bath, from Lady Bath of England, 
 a member of the Pulteney family. " Before the end 
 of the season," he says, " not less than fifteen fami- 
 lies were resident in the village. Early in the season 
 a saw-mill had been finished, and previous to the set- 
 ting in of the winter a grist-mill with a saw-mill nearer 
 the town were in great forwardness." The first men- 
 tioned saw-mill stood on or near the site of the " Glass- 
 mill," on the Kennedy ville road. The grist-mill stood 
 near the bridge. On New Year's Day of 1794:, a few 
 months after the settlement, Mr. Harry McElwee, a 
 young man from the north of Ireland, made his entry 
 into the new-made village, and gives his first impres- 
 sion substantially as follows : — " I found a few shan- 
 ties standing in the woods. Williamson had his house 
 where Will Woods has since lived, and the Metcalfes 
 kept a log-tavern above the Presbyterian Church. I 
 went to the tavern and asked for supper and lodging. 
 They said they could give me neither, for their house 
 was full. I could get nothing to eat. An old Dutch- 
 man was sitting there, and he said to me : ' Young 
 man if you will go with me you shall have some mush 
 and milk for your supper, and a deer-skin to lie on 
 with your feet to the fire, and another to cover your- 
 self with.' I told him that I thanked him kindly, and 
 would go along. We went up through the woods to 
 where St. Patrick's square now is, and there the 
 
112 
 
 Dutcliman had a little log-house. There was no floor 
 to it. I made a supper of mush and milk, and laid 
 down with my feet to the fire and slept soundly. The 
 Dutchman was travelling through to the Genesee, but 
 his children were taken sick and he stopped there till 
 they got well." Mr. McElwee, now residing on the 
 Mud Creek, is the sole survivor of the young men 
 who were with Capt. Williamson in the first years of 
 the settlement, now living in the town of Bath. Mr. 
 Thomas Metcalfe, of Ellicotville, and Charles Came- 
 ron, Esq., of Greene, with perhaps a few others, sur- 
 vive of the " stout lads " who came up with their 
 Captain in '94. 
 
 The trees had, at this time, been cut away only to 
 admit of the erection of cabins for the accommodation 
 of the few citizens, and to open a road through the for- 
 est. In the spring of 1794 Mr. McElwee, under the 
 direction of Captain Williamson, made the first clear- 
 ings, being the Pulteney Square and four acres behind 
 the agent's house for a garden, for the cultivation of 
 which he afterwards imported a gardener from Eng- 
 land. The trees on the square were chopped carefully 
 and close to the ground. A single pine was left stand- 
 ing in front of the agency house for a Liberty Tree. 
 It was trimmed so as to leave a tuft at the top, and 
 stood nodding defiance at despotism for several years, 
 when it was blown down in a storm. The chopper of 
 the Pulteney Square denies the popular tradition, that 
 to get rid of the stumps they were undermined and 
 buried. Many strange expedients were resorted to in 
 those days by persons not trained from their infancy 
 
113 
 
 to wood craft, to free the earth from the pitch-pine 
 stumps and the oak stools which seemed to be more 
 enduring than '* brass and pyramids," but the tradi- 
 tion of the preposterous burial, just alluded to, is 
 without foundation. 
 
 For notices of early citizens, and the early opera- 
 tions of Capt. Williamson, we refer to the following 
 narrative : 
 
 NARRATIVE, BY GEN. GEORGE m'cLURE, LATE OF 
 ELGIN, ILLINOIS. 
 
 Some sixty years since Western New York was a 
 howling wilderness, inhabited by Indians and wild 
 
 [Note. — The following reminiscences were prepared in the sum- 
 mer of 1850, at the request of the publishers, by Gen. McClure, -who 
 resided at that time in Elgin, Illinois, at the age of 80 years, and 
 ■were submitted by him, with unlimited license to alter and amend. 
 They might perhaps be disposed more advantageously to the order 
 of history if broken up and used in extracts as occasion required, 
 but the narrative will probably be more acceptable as here presented 
 than in any other shape, A few extracts have been inserted in 
 other places. With these exceptions the narrative is almost un- 
 altered. Gen. McClure is necessarily the hero of his own story, and 
 in his private instructions to the publishers desired it to be so altered 
 that every appearance of soundmg his own trumpet might be 
 avoided. The editor was unwilling to make any changes except in 
 a few passages which have been condensed. The language is fresh 
 and graphic, and the narrative gives a lively picture of the early 
 business of the county. Passages, declaratory- of Gen. M.'s opinions 
 on politics, it was deemed absolutely indispensable to omit. It is 
 proper, however, to say that he avowed himself to be a staunch 
 free-soiler, a radical temperance man, and a firm believer in the fu- 
 ture glory of the United States. These reminiscences are given 
 from memory. Gen, M, lost his papers by fire.] 
 11* 
 
114 
 
 beasts. Where the Citj of Utica now stands was con- 
 sidered in those dtijs the extreme western frontier ; 
 all west of that place had been but partially explored 
 by civilized man. It was considered imprudent and 
 dangerous to attempt a journey into that wild region. 
 " After Oliver Phelps had purchased of Massachusetts 
 the pre-emptive right to a large tract of land in West- 
 ern New York, he made preparations to visit and ex- 
 plore that wild region ; his neighbors called upon him 
 to take a last farewell, as ^hey never expected to see 
 his face again." 
 
 Much has been written, since those, days of the far 
 famed west. * * * * J3ut it may now be asked 
 what has become of it. Has it eloped or absconded 
 like the wandering savage tribes that once possessed 
 that goodly land 1 Yes, truly it is gone, and now like 
 the Children of Israel of old, it has reached the pro- 
 mised land, not a land flowing with milk and honey 
 only, but also with gold, silver, and precious stones. 
 The great Pacific Ocean is its boundary. Here I take 
 my leave of the Far West, and return to old Steuben, 
 to give some account of the hardy and enterprising pio- 
 neers who were the first settlers in that wild and un- 
 cultivated region. 
 
 Rev. James H. Hotchkin in his " History of the 
 Presbyterian Church in Western New York," makes 
 some severe strictures on the character of Capt. Wil- 
 liamson and his settlers. He says, " They were prin- 
 cipally from Europe or the States of Maryland and 
 Virginia, with a sprinkling of Yankees, who came to 
 make money." ^' The state of society " he remarks, 
 
115 
 
 ^' was vei7 dissolute. The Sabbath was disregarded. 
 Drinking, gambling, carousing, horse-racing, attending 
 the theatre, with other concomitant vices were very 
 general, and numbers of those who moved in the high 
 circle were exceedingly depraved." I do not know 
 from what source such information was obtained ; but 
 this I know, that the Sabbath was not desecrated in the 
 village of Bath in the manner that he represents. We 
 had but two public houses in that village for many 
 years. One was kept by the Metcalfe family, and the 
 other by old Mr. Cruger, and after him by Mr. Bull. 
 Neither of these houses suffered gambling and carous- 
 ing on the Sabbath. Nor did I ever hear of a horse- 
 race on the Sabbath in Bath, nor of theatrical amuse- 
 ments on that day. There were not more than four or 
 five families from Maryland and Virginia that settled 
 in Bath ;* the other part of our population were at 
 least one half Yankees, and the other half foreigners and 
 Pennsylvanians. Now I would say that instead of a 
 " sprinkling of Yankees ^'^'^ we had a heavy shower of 
 them. I do not believe, however, that they were a fair 
 sample of the sons of the Pilgrims, for a good many of 
 them, to say the least, were no better than they should 
 Ibe. I trust that nothing in my remarks will be con- 
 sidered invidious. I do not intimate by any means 
 that Rev. Mr. Hotchkin would knowingly state an un- 
 truth, but that he has not been correctly informed in 
 
 * Major Presley Thornton, who was the first occupant of the 
 great Sjyringjield House, a mile and a half below Bath, and Capt. 
 William Helen, two Virginians, were the principal Southern men 
 who located at Bath, 
 
116 
 
 relation to the character of a large proportion of the 
 early settlers. I admit that many were very loose in 
 their morals, " lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of 
 God." In the year 180T. we employed the Rev. John 
 Niles to preach for us half his time, and the other half 
 in Prattsburgh. I believe he was a good man, but not 
 well qualified to reform so dissolute and heathenish a 
 body of men as composed Capt. Williamson's first set- 
 tlers (according to the popular account of us). 
 
 Among the number of the most respectable Scotch 
 emigrants were Charles Cameron and Dugald, his bro- 
 ther. These two young men were first-rate specimens 
 of the Scotch character for intelligence and integrity, 
 as well as for other amiable qualities. Charles Cam- 
 eron was a merchant, and the first to open a store in 
 Bath. He was also the first post-master by appoint- 
 ment of Capt. Williamson, who paid all expenses of 
 transporting the mail once a week to and from North- 
 umberland.* Some fifteen or twenty years after he 
 obtained the appointment of sub-agent of the Hornby 
 estate from John Greig, Esq., of Canandaigua, the 
 chief agent. He moved to the village of Greene, in 
 Chenango County, where he still resides. Few men 
 possessed stronger intellectual powers than Dugald 
 Cameron. He was highly respected by all classes of 
 his neighbors and acquaintances. He was a clerk in 
 the Land Office for some time, until he and Gen. 
 Haight were appointed sub-agents by Col. Troup. 
 
 * Aq old Frenchman lived at the " Blockhouse," on Laurel Ridge, 
 65 miles distant from Bath. Thomas Corbit, the mail rider in '94, 
 went thither weekly for the Steuben County bag. 
 
117 
 
 He was a great favorite of the people of Steuben. In 
 1828 they elected him as their representative in the 
 Legislature of the State, which, appointment with some 
 reluctance he accepted. While at Albany attending 
 to the duties of his station, he was seized with a violent 
 complaint, and after a short and painful struggle de- 
 parted this life, leaving a wife and a numerous family 
 of children, most of whom have since died. His death 
 was lamented by all his relations, friends, and ac- 
 quaintances. 
 
 Andrew Smith, a trustworthy Scotchman, had the 
 charge of the farming operations of Capt. Williamson ; 
 such as the clearing of the land for cultivation ; and all 
 other kinds of labor were committed to his charge. He 
 had generally from thirty to fifty men, and some- 
 times more, in his employ, and I had nearly as many 
 in the house-building department. Muckle Andrew 
 (as we called him, being a large man,) and myself 
 were great cronies. We were both single men, and 
 kept bachelors' hall. We generally met on Saturday 
 evenings, alternately, in each others' apartments. We 
 had, in those days, plenty of the Jo3//i^/, but we seldom 
 carried matters so far as to get decently tipsy. We 
 violated no pledge, for even ministers of the gospel 
 and deacons, in those days, kept on their side-boards 
 a full supply of the best Cogniac, wine and old whis- 
 key ; and when they got out of those articles, they 
 would make very decent and * * * * 
 * * * But I must return for a moment to 
 my good friend Muckle Andre \y, and relate how we 
 used to spend the evenings of our social meetings* 
 
118 
 
 The first topic of conversation was the business of the 
 past week, and what progress we had made in our re- 
 spective vocations. The next business in order was a 
 drink, then a story or a song. Andrew told the sto- 
 ries, and I did the singing. My songs were generally 
 the productions of Burns, such as, " Scots ivha ha' wi^ 
 Wallace hied,'' " Wha'll he king hut Charlie,'' and 
 " Auld Lang Syne." The last verse we always sung 
 standing. My good friend Andrew had one favorite 
 standing toast, which was as follows : 
 
 " Here's to niysel', co' a' to my sel', 
 Wi' a' my heart here's to me ; 
 Here's to mysel', co' a' to mysel', 
 And muckle guid may it do me." 
 
 There were a number of respectable young men, 
 natives of Scotland, arrived in Bath in the years '93 
 and '94, amongst whom was Hector McKenzie, said 
 to be the son of a Scotch Laird, who was employed as 
 a Clerk in the Land Office. Of him I have nothing 
 to say, only that he felt himself a good deal taller than 
 other young men; and although otherwise respectable, 
 I discovered that he did not possess any of the amia- 
 ble qualities of his countrymen, the Camerons, and not 
 a particle of the courtesy and unassuming manners of 
 his employer, Capt. Williamson.* 
 
 John Greig, Esq., (now of Canandaigua, and chief 
 agent of the Hornby estate,) arrived about the same 
 time, a young man of fine talents, a lawyer by profes- 
 sion. He did not make Bath his place of permanent resi- 
 
 *He died in the West Indies. 
 
1J9 
 
 dence, but lie often paid us a visit, and we were always 
 glad to see him, and never allowed him to depart with- 
 out having a real jovial old-fashioned thanksgiving. 
 
 Also, about this time, arrived Robert Campbell and 
 Daniel McKenzie, both respectable mechanics. They 
 have both lately departed this life. Mr. Campbell, 
 {though one of Williamson'^ s first settlers,) was sober 
 and industrious, and a worthy member of the Presby- 
 terian Church. There was also old Mr. Mullender, 
 with a very interesting family, who settled on a farm 
 of Capt. Williamson's, near Bath. They were from 
 Scotland, and removed afterwards to the Old Indian 
 Castle, near Geneva. 
 
 I must now take leave of my Scotch friends, while I 
 talk a little about my own dear countrymen, as well 
 as of some of the sons of the pilgrims. 
 
 Henry McElwee, and William, his brother, Frank 
 Scott, Charles McClure, Gustavus Gillespie, and 
 Brown, his brother, Samuel and John Metier, with 
 large families of children — those, with many others 
 whose names I do not now recollect, were natives of 
 the North of Ireland, whose ancestors were of Scotch 
 descent. They are all dead and gone long since, with 
 the exception of Henry McElwee, who is 3^et alive and 
 resides on his farm at Mud Creek. He was an honest, 
 sober, industrious, hard-working man, and had the 
 confidence and patronage of Capt. Williamson. 
 
 William Dunn, a native of Pennsylvania, came to 
 Bath in the spring of 1793, and kept for a short time 
 a house of entertainment. He was appointed High 
 Sheriff of the County after its organization. He was 
 
120 
 
 a very gentlemanly man. He entered largely into 
 land speculation without capital, and like many others, 
 his visionary prospects soon vanished, and wound him 
 up. He moved to Newtown, where he shortly after 
 died. Mr. Dunn had two brothers, who came to Bath 
 with him, or shortly after : Robert and Joseph. The 
 former was called Col. Dunn. This military title he 
 obtained on his way from York County, in Pennsyl- 
 vania, to Bath. He was one of a company of adven- 
 turers and speculators, who agreed that they should 
 introduce each other by certain assumed titles. Some 
 Judges, others Generals, Colonels, Majors, but none 
 below the grade of Captain. This Col. Dunn would 
 pass anywhere as a gentleman of the first rank .in 
 society. 
 
 Old Mr. Cruger moved from Newtown to Bath, and 
 kept the house lately occupied by Wm, Dunn, on the 
 southeast corner of the public square. Mr. Cruger, I 
 understood, was a native of Denmark — a very pleasant 
 man, full of anecdote and mother wit. He was the 
 father of Gen. Daniel Cruger. Gen. Cruger was a 
 lawyer, and was highly respected by his fellow-citizens. 
 He represented the people of Steuben County in the 
 State legislature several years, and also the District in 
 the Congress of the United States. He served with 
 me in Canada, in the campaign of 1813, as a Major of 
 Infantry, and was a faithful and vigilant oflficer. Some 
 years since he removed to the State of Virginia, and 
 died there. 
 
 But I am violating my own rule in spinning out such 
 long yarns. My locomotive being on the high pressure 
 
121 
 
 system, I find it difficult to arrest its progress. When 
 I corae to speak of the trade and commerce of Mud 
 Creek, and the Conhocton and Canisteo Rivers, -which 
 then wormed their way over sand-bars and piles of 
 drift-wood into the Chemung River, I shall have some- 
 thing more to say of the enterprise of Mr. Bartles, and^ 
 of his son Jacob, and son-in-law, Mr. Harvey. 
 
 The town of Prattsburgh was settled with Yankees. 
 They were truly men of steady habits and correct 
 morals. For further particulars I refer the reader to 
 Rev. James H. Hotchkins' book in relation to the in- 
 habitants of that town. 
 
 I have said nothing of the inhabitants of the town of 
 Wayne, and, with a few exceptions, would beg leave to 
 be excused. Dr. Benjamin Welles moved from Kin- 
 derhook, N. Y., to that town in 1798, if I am cor- 
 rectly informed. He had a numerous family of children. 
 Dr. Welles was a surgeon in the army of the Revolu- 
 tion, and part of the time belonged to Gen. Washing- 
 ton's staff. He died in 181.2. 
 
 Gen. William Kernan, an Irishman by birth, moved 
 into Steuben I think about the year 1800, and settled 
 in the town of Tyrone. He is an active politician of 
 the Democratic party, but whether he is Hunker or 
 Barnburner I am not able to say. Gen. Kernan has 
 been a popular man in the county, and the people have 
 conferred on him from time to time many important 
 offices.* 
 
 * Mr. John Faulkner, of the eastern part of the State, settled at 
 an early day in Painted Post, where he died. Dr. James Faulkner, 
 his son, an eminent physician, and a public man of sagacity and 
 
 12 
 
122 
 
 A brief sketch of my own history will doubtless be 
 expected. From the consideration that 1 have been 
 one of the principal actors amongst the first settlers 
 in Steuben County, and that I have undertaken to be 
 the biographer of other men's lives, I can see no im- 
 propriety in giving a sketch of my own. I approach 
 the subject with all due modesty, divesting myself of 
 anything that might have the appearance of egotism ; 
 for it cannot be supposed that I have any ambitious 
 views or propensities to gratify, either politically or 
 otherwise, at my advanced time of life. 
 
 I was born in Ireland, in the year 1770 ; my ances- 
 tors emigrated from Scotland, and settled not far from 
 the city of Londonderry. They belonged to a religious 
 sect called Covenanters, who for conscience sake had 
 to fly from their country to a place of greater safety, 
 and out of the reach of their cruel and bigoted perse- 
 cutors. I was kept at school from the age of four 
 years to fifteen. The character and qualifications of 
 those Irish pedagogues, to whom the education of 
 youth was then committed, is not generally understood 
 in this country. They were cruel and tyrannical in the 
 mode and manner of chastising their pupils. Their 
 savage mode of punishment, for the least offence, was 
 disgraceful. 
 
 After leaving school, I chose to learn the trade of a 
 carpenter, and at the age of twenty I resolved to come 
 
 eccentricity, lived at Mud Creek. He was first Judge of the County 
 Court, from 1804 to 1813. Mr. John Faulkner, a brother of Dr. 
 Faulkner, settled on a farm five miles north of the village of Bath. 
 Two other brothers, Daniel and Samuel, settled at Dansville. 
 
123 
 
 to America. I therefore embarked on board the ship 
 Mary of Londonderry for Baltimore. We made a 
 quick and pleasant voyage of five weeks. I landed in 
 Baltimore the first week in June, in good health and 
 spirits. The whole of my property consisted of three 
 suits of clothing, three dozen of linen shirts, and a 
 chest of tools. As soon as I landed, I stepped into a 
 new building, where a number of carpenters were at 
 work, and inquired for the master builder. I asked 
 him if he wished to employ a journeyman. He said 
 that he did, and inquired how much wages I asked. 
 My answer was, that I could not tell ; that I knew 
 nothing of the usages of the country, as I had but a 
 few minutes before landed from the ship. 
 
 " Then," said he, " I presume your are an Eng- 
 lishman." 
 
 " Not exactly, sir," I replied. " Although I have 
 been a subject of King George the Third, of England, 
 my place of nativity was Ireland, but I am of Scotch 
 descent." 
 
 '^Ah, well, no matter. Come to-morrow morning 
 and try your hand." 
 
 I did so, and worked for him two months, when he 
 paid me $75. Thinks I to myself, this is a good 
 beginning — better than to have remained in Ireland, 
 and worked for two shillings and sixpence per day. 
 
 I then determined to see more of the land of liberty ; 
 for at this time I had never travelled beyond the 
 bounds of the city. I had some relations near Cham- 
 bersburgh, Pa., and I made preparations to visit them. 
 In those days there were no stages, only from city to 
 
124 
 
 city on the sea-board. All the trade of the back- 
 woods was carried on by pack-horses, and some few 
 wagons where roads were suitable. I was advised to 
 purchase and rig out a pack-horse, but as to do this 
 would use up half my means, I concluded to be my 
 own pack-horse, and set out on foot for the far west, 
 leaving the heaviest part of my goods and chattels to 
 be forwarded by the first opportunity. I made good 
 headway the first day, but I had put on too much 
 steam and became foot-sore. I stopped for the night 
 at the house of a wealthy German farmer, who had a 
 large family of children, males and females, most of 
 them grown up. Mine host and his good-looking Frau 
 could not speak a word of English. He was very in- 
 quisitive, but he might as w^ell have talked Hindoo to 
 me as German, as I could answer them only in their 
 own way by a kind of grunt and shake of the head, 
 which meant " I can't understand." So he called his 
 son Jacob (who had been to an English school, and 
 could talk a little English,) to act as interpreter. He 
 told his son to ask me whence I came, and whether or 
 not I was a forjioughter Irishman (that is, in plain 
 
 English, a d d Irishman.) Thinks I this is a 
 
 poser, and I answered judiciously, and I think cor- 
 rectly, under all the circumstances. I told him I was 
 a Scotchman, as in Ireland all Protestants go by the 
 name of Scotch or English, as the case may be. My 
 Dutch landsman appeared to be satisfied, and we had 
 a very social chat that evening to a late hour. The 
 family were all collected, young and old, to hear of the 
 manners and customs of the Scotch. They seemed to 
 
125 
 
 take a great liking to me, and it was well for me that 
 I had become quite a favorite, for my feet were so 
 blistered with travelling that I could not move. I re- 
 mained several days till I got over my lameness. 
 When I called for my bill I was told that all was free, 
 and was invited to remain a few days longer. I set 
 out on my journey, refreshed and encouraged by the 
 hospitality and kindness of that amiable Dutch family. 
 
 In three days thereafter I reached Chambersburgh, 
 which is one hundred miles west of Baltimore. I re- 
 mained there until the spring following, when I dis- 
 covered in the newspapers an advertisement, signed by 
 Charles Williamson, offering steady employment and 
 high wages to mechanics and laborers who would agree 
 to go with him to the Genesee Country. Thinks I this 
 is a good chance, and I will embrace it. I set out im- 
 mediately for Northumberland, the head-quarters of 
 Mr. Williamson. On my arrival there, I was told 
 that Capt. W. had started with a numerous company 
 of pioneers to open a road through the wilderness to 
 his place of destination — 140 miles. 
 
 I had some relations and other particular friends 
 and acquaintances in that country. An uncle of mine, 
 of the name of Moore, who came with his family from 
 Ireland in the year 1790, had settled near the village 
 of Northumberland. I made Uncle Moore's my home 
 until I heard of the arrival of Capt. Williamson at 
 Bath, when I again made my preparations to set out 
 for the land of promise, accompanied by my old Uncle 
 Moore, a man who had never travelled more than 
 twenty miles from his old homestead in all his life, ex- 
 12* 
 
126 
 
 cepting on his voyage to America. I told him that if 
 his object in coming to this country was to purchase 
 land for himself and his sons, he ought, without delay, 
 to go to the Genesee country, where he could purchase 
 first-rate land for one dollar per acre. This was all 
 true, though I was somewhat selfish in making the 
 proposition, as I did not like to travel alone through 
 the wilderness, liable to be devoured by panthers, 
 bears and wolves ; so I eventually persuaded the old 
 gentleman to accompany me. The old lady. Aunt 
 Moore, packed up provision enough for at least a four 
 weeks' journey. We mounted a pair of good horses 
 and set out. We had only travelled twenty miles 
 when we came to a large rapid stream or creek, which 
 from late heavy rains was bank full. Uncle Moore 
 concluded to retrace his steps homeward. I told him 
 I could not agree to that. " Why, we will be laughed 
 at." " Well," said he, " they may laugh if they 
 please," and would go 7io further. 
 
 " Very well," said I, " If that's your determination, 
 I will remain here until the water falls — but I see a 
 house close by, and a large canoe, (the first I had ever 
 seen,) let us go and inquire whether it would be safe 
 to swim our horses alongside of it." 
 
 We were told there was no danger, and two men 
 volunteered to put us over. Uncle Moore proposed 
 that I should pass over first with my horse, and if I 
 made a safe voyage, to send back for him. We landed 
 in safety. I got the old gentleman just where I 
 wanted him. He must now go ahead, as his retreat 
 was now cut off. In the meantime I had learned that 
 
127 
 
 there were two other large streams ahead of us. The 
 first, called the Loyal Sock^ within twelve miles, and 
 the Lycoming, eight miles beyond. We went on our 
 way rejoicing until we came to the Loyal Sock. There 
 was no inhabitant near. What was to be done. I 
 told Uncle Moore we must do one of two things, either 
 swim our horses across, or encamp on the bank till the 
 river falls, but I thought there was no danger in swim- 
 ming, as it was a deep stream and not rapid. I pro- 
 posed to go over first, and if I arrived safe, he might 
 follow if he thought proper. I gave him directions to 
 hold his horse quartering up stream, and seize with his 
 right hand the horse's mane, and not look down in the 
 water, but straight across to some object on the other 
 side. I passed over without difficulty. The old gen- 
 tleman hesitated for some time. At length he plunged 
 in and crossed with ease. We soon after arrived at 
 the bank of the Lycoming Creek. That stream was 
 high and outrageously rapid. We concluded that it 
 was best to wait until it became fordable. We stopped 
 at the house of one Thompson, remained there several 
 days, overhauled our clothing and provisions, and made 
 another fresh start, and entered the wilderness on 
 Capt. Williamson's new road. 
 
 There were no houses between Lycoming and Paint- 
 ed Post, a distance of 95 miles, except one in the 
 wilderness, kept by a semi-barbarian — or in other 
 words, a half-civilized Frenchman, named Anthony 
 Sun. He did not bear a very good character, but we 
 were obliged to put up with him for the night, or en- 
 camp in the woods. The next night we slept soundly 
 
128 
 
 on a bed of hemlock, on the bank of the Tioga River. 
 Next day, about 12 o'clock, we arrived at Fuller's 
 Tavern, Painted Post. We ordered dinner of the very 
 best they could afford, which consisted of fried venison 
 and hominey. After dinner we concluded to spend the 
 afternoon in visiting the few inhabitants of that neigh- 
 borhood, of whom I have before spoken. First we 
 called upon Judge Knox, who entertained us with a 
 description of the country and his own adventures. 
 We next called on Benjamin Eaton, who kept a little 
 store of goods, and after an introduction by Judge 
 Knox to the rest of the neighborhood, returned to our 
 hotel and put up for the night. In the morning we 
 started for Bath, a distance of eighteen miles. When 
 we reached the mouth of Mud Creek, we found that a 
 house of entertainment had been erected there, and 
 was kept by one Thomas Corbit, who came from Penn- 
 sylvania with Williamson's company.* Thomas had 
 been a soldier of the Revolution, and could sing an un- 
 accountable number of patriotic songs — Hail Columbia, 
 among the rest. Some thirty years after he became 
 poor and helpless. I procured for him a pension, 
 through Henry Clay, but he did not live long to en- 
 joy it. 
 
 We arrived at Bath and put up at the only house 
 
 * The first settlers at the mouth of Mud Creek were Thomas Corbit, 
 in '93, John Dolson, in '94, and Henry Bush. Capt. Williamson, -while 
 on a journey from the North, was taken sick, and was so kindly taken 
 care of at Dolson's house, on the Chemung, that he gave Mrs. T>. 200 
 acres of land wherever she might locate it, between Painted Post and 
 the Hermitage. 
 
129 
 
 of entertainment in the village (if it could be called a 
 house). It's construction was of pitch-pine logs, in 
 two apartments, one story high, kept by a very kind 
 and obliging English family of the name of Metcalfe. 
 This house was the only one in town except a similar 
 one erected for the temporary abode of Capt; William- 
 son, which answered the purpose of parlor, dining- 
 room, and land office. There were besides some shan- 
 ties for mechanics and laborers. 
 
 I called on Capt. Williamson and introduced myself 
 to him as a mechanic. I told him that I had seen his 
 advertisement, and in pursuance of his invitation, had 
 come to ask employment. " Very well," said he, 
 "young man, you shall not be disappointed." He 
 told me I should have the whole of his work if I could 
 procure as many hands as was necessary. We entered 
 into an agreement. He asked me when I should be 
 ready to commence business. I told him that I must 
 return to Northumberland and engage some hands 
 there, and send out tools and baggage up the North 
 branch of the Susquehanna River to Tioga Point, that 
 being the head of boat navigation. 
 
 I introduced Uncle Moore to him — told him that he 
 came all the way to see the country, and that if he 
 liked it, he would purchase a farm and move on it with 
 his family. He made a selection four miles west of 
 Bath on which some of his family now reside. 
 
 We returned immediately to Northumberland, hired 
 a few young men carpenters. We shipped our tools 
 and baggage on a boat, sold my horse, and we went on 
 foot to Bath, arriving there in five days. One more 
 
130 
 
 trip was necessary before we could commence business, 
 as our baggage would be landed at Tioga Point. 
 There were no roads at that time through the narrows 
 on the Chemung for wagons to pass with safety ; there- 
 fore eight of us started on foot for the Point. When 
 we came within four miles of Newtown, we discovered 
 a number of canoes owned by some Dutch settlers. I 
 purchased four of them. One of them was a very large 
 one which I bought of a funny old Dutchman, who said 
 his canoe " wash de granny from de whole river up." 
 My companions gave me the title of Commodore, and 
 insisted on my taking command of the large canoe. I 
 selected as a shipmate a young man by the name of 
 Gordon who was well skilled in the management of 
 such a craft. We laid in provision for the voyage and 
 a full supply of the joyful. We pushed our little fleet 
 into the river, and with wind and tide in our favor, ar- 
 rived at Tioga Point in four hours, a distance of twen- 
 ty-four miles. We shipped our goods, and set out 
 with paddles and long setting poles against a strong 
 current. Then came the tug of war. Many times we 
 were obliged to land, and with a long rope tow our ves- 
 sels up falls and strong riffles, and in ascending the 
 Conhocton we had to cut through many piles of drift- 
 wood. Our progress was slow. We made the trip 
 from the Point (fifty-six miles) in nine days. It was 
 the hardest voyage that I ever undertook. We were 
 the first navigators of the Conhocton river. 
 
 By this time Captain Williamson had erected two 
 saw-mills on the Conhocton river, near Bath, and they 
 were in full operation. Houses were erected as fast 
 
131 
 
 as thirty or forty hands could finish them. Captain 
 Williamson called on me and asked me how long it 
 would take me to erect and finish a frame building of 
 forty by sixteen feet, one and a half stories high, all 
 green stufi". He told me that he expected a good deal 
 of company in a few days, and there was no house 
 where so many could be entertained. I told him if all 
 the materials were delivered on the spot, I would en- 
 gage to finish it according to his plan in about three 
 days, or perhaps in less time. " Very well, sir," said 
 he, " if you finish the house in the time you have stat- 
 ed, you shall be rewarded." I told my hands what I 
 had undertaken to do, and the time I had to do it in 
 was limited to three days : " I will pay each of you 
 one dollar a day extra. We shall have to work day 
 and night. What say you, boys ?" Their answer 
 was : " We will go it." This was followed up by 
 three hearty cheers for Captain Williamson. Next 
 morning I went at it with thirty hands, and in forty- 
 eight hours the house was finished according to agree- 
 ment. No lime-stone had yet been discovered in that 
 region, nor even stone suitable for walling cellars, 
 therefore the whole materials for building were from 
 necessity confined to timber and nails. Captain Wil- 
 liamson paid me $400 for my forty-eight hours' job, 
 and remarked that he would not have been disappoint- 
 ed for double that sum. He published an account of 
 this little afiair in the Albany and New York papers. 
 It had some efi'ect of bringing our little settlement into 
 notice. He also gave orders for the erection of a large 
 building of 80 by 40 feet, for a theatre, and for the 
 
132 
 
 clearing of one hundred acres, around which was made 
 a beautiful race-course, and another on Genesee Flats, 
 near Williamshurgh. Such amusements had the ef- 
 fect of bringing an immense number of gentlemen into 
 the county every spring and fall. This was done by 
 Captain W. in order to promote the interest of his em- 
 ployer. Southern sportsmen came with their full- 
 blooded racers ; others, again, with bags of money to 
 bet on the horses, and a large proportion of gamblers 
 and blacklegs. Money was plenty, in those days at 
 least, in and about Bath, and was easily obtained and 
 as easily lost. Some men became immensely rich in 
 twenty-four hours, and perhaps the next day were re- 
 duced to beggary. 
 
 Such amusements and scenes of dissipation led to 
 another species of gambling called land speculation. 
 Any respectable looking gentleman might purchase on 
 a credit of six years, from one mile square to a town- 
 ship of land. The title that Captain Williamson gave 
 was a bond for a deed at the end of the term, provided 
 payment was fully made ; otherwise the contract be- 
 came null and void. Those bonds were transferable 
 and the speculators sold to each other, and gave their 
 bonds for thousands and hundreds of thousands of dol- 
 lars, which was the ruin of all who embarked in such 
 foolish speculations. They became the victims of a 
 monomania. Captain W. believed that this specula- 
 tion would hasten the settlement of the county, but its 
 tendency proved to be the reverse. Besides, it was 
 the ruin of many honest, enterprising and industrious 
 men. 
 
133 
 
 Captain W. always advised me to keep clear of land 
 speculation, and I resisted the temptation for more 
 than two years. I was doing well enough, clearing 
 several thousand dollars a year, but like many others, 
 did not let well enough alone. My father's family 
 had arrived in the United States, and had settled in 
 the county of Northumberland, Pa., and I started in 
 the fall of 1794 to visit them. On my way there, T 
 met with one of those speculating gentlemen with whom 
 I was acquainted. He offered me a great bargain, as 
 I supposed, of half a Township, or 12,000 acres. It 
 was the south half of Township No. 6, now called 
 South Dansville. I agreed to pay him for his right 
 twenty-five cents per acre, and paid him $1,000 in 
 hand — and gave him my notes for the payment of the 
 balance in annual payments. I went on to New York 
 city where a few had been lucky enough to make good 
 sales. I employed an auctioneer, and offered my lands 
 for sale to the highest bidder at the Tontine Coffee 
 House. It was knocked off at my own bid. I return- 
 ed sick enough of land jobbing, but held on to my land 
 until the next races in Bath, when I made a sale to one 
 Mr. John Brown, a very respectable merchant and 
 farmer of Northumberland Co., Pa. He paid me in 
 merchandise $1,000, and gave his bonds for the bal- 
 ance. He shortly after failed in business, and I lost 
 the whole of my hard earnings. 
 
 The next project that claimed his attention was the 
 
 improvement of our streams. They were then called 
 
 creeks, but when they came to be improved, and were 
 
 made navigable for arks and rafts, their names wera 
 
 13 
 
134 
 
 changed to those of rivers. The Colonel ordered the 
 Conhocton and Mud Creek to be explored by a com- 
 petent committee, and a report to be made, and an es- 
 timate of the probable expense required to make them 
 navigable for arks and rafts. The report of the com- 
 mittee was favorable. A number of hands were em- 
 ployed to remove obstructions and open a passage to 
 Painted Post — which was done, though the channel 
 still remained very imperfect and dangerous.* The 
 question was then asked, who shall be the first adven- 
 turer 1 We had not as yet any surplus produce to 
 spare, but lumber was a staple commodity, and was in 
 great demand at Harrisburgh, Columbia, and Balti- 
 more. I therefore came to the conclusion to try the 
 experiment the next spring. I went to work and built 
 an ark 75 feet long and 16 feet wide, and in the course 
 of the winter got out a cargo of pipe and hogshead 
 staves, which I knew would turn to good account 
 should I arrive safely at Baltimore. All things being 
 ready, with cargo on board, and a good pitch of water 
 and a first-rate set of hands, we put out our unwieldy 
 vessel into the stream, and away we went at a rapid 
 rate, and in about half an hour reached White's Is- 
 land, five miles below Bath. There we ran against a 
 large tree that lay across the river. We made fast 
 o.ur ark to the shore, cut away the tree, repaired dama- 
 ges, and next morning took a fair start. It is unneces- 
 sary to state in detail the many difficulties we encoun- 
 
 *The Conhocton -was declared navigable above Liberty Corners. 
 The first attempt at clearing the channel was made on the strength 
 of a fund of |Y00, raised by subscription. 
 
135 
 
 tered before we reached Painted Post, but in about six 
 days Tre got there. The Chemung River had fallen so 
 low that we were obliged to wait for a rise of water. 
 In four or five days we were favored with a good pitch 
 of water. We made a fresh start, and in four days 
 ran 200 miles, to Mohontongo, a place 20 miles from 
 Harrisburgh, where, through the ignorance of the pilot, 
 we ran upon a bar of rocks in the middle of the river, 
 where it was one mile wide. There we lay twenty- 
 four hours, no one coming to our relief or to take us 
 on shore. At last a couple of gentlemen came on 
 board, and told us it was impossible to get the ark off 
 until a rise of water. One of the gentlemen enquired, 
 apparently very carelessly, what it cost to build an 
 ark of that size, and how many thousand staves we 
 had on board. I suspected his object, and answered 
 him in his own careless manner. He asked if I did 
 not wish to sell the ark and cargo. I told him I 
 would prefer going through if there was any chance of 
 a rise of water — that pipe-staves, in Baltimore, were 
 worth $S0 per thousand, but if you wish to purchase, 
 and will make me a generous offer, I will think of it. 
 He offered me $600. I told him that was hardly half 
 the price of the cargo at Baltimore, but if he would 
 give me $800 I would close a bargain with him. He 
 said he had a horse, saddle and bridle on shore, worth 
 $200, which he would add to the $600. We all went 
 on shore. I examined the horse, and considered him 
 worth the $200. We closed the bargain, and I started 
 for Bath. I lost nothing by the sale, but if I had suc- 
 ceeded in reaching Baltimore I should have cleared 
 $500. 
 
136 
 
 The same spring, Jacob Bartles, and his brother-in- 
 law Mr. Harvey, made their way down Mud Creek 
 with one ark and some rafts. Bartles' Mill Pond and 
 Mud Lake afforded water sufficient at any time, by 
 drawing a gate, to carry arks and rafts out of the 
 creek. Harvey lived on the west branch of the Sus- 
 quehanna, and understood the management of such 
 crafts. 
 
 Thus it was ascertained to a certainty, that, by im- 
 proving those streams, we could transport our produce 
 to Baltimore — a distance of 300 miles — in the spring 
 of the year, for a mere trifle. 
 
 In the year 1795 I went to Albany on horseback. 
 There was no road from Cayuga Lake to Utica better 
 than an Indian trail, and no accommodations that I 
 found better than Indian wigwams. It may save me 
 some trouble if I tell what took me there, and all about 
 my business. I volunteered to give a history of my 
 own life, and I shall redeem my pledge so far as my 
 memory will enable me to do so. I had got it into my 
 head to dispose of my chest of tools, and turn mer- 
 chant. I therefore settled my accounts with Col. 
 Williamson. He gave me a draft on a house in Al- 
 bany for $1,500, accompanied by letters of recom- 
 mendation. I laid in a large assortment of merchan- 
 dise, and shipped them on board a Mohawk boat. 
 Being late in the fall the winter set in, and the boat 
 got frozen up in the river about thirty miles west of 
 Schenectady, at a place called the Cross Widow^s, 
 otherwise called the Widow Veeder's. Here the goods 
 lay for about two months, till a sleigh-road was opened 
 
137 
 
 from Utica to Cayuga Lake. About the last of Janu- 
 ary I started with sleighs after my goods, and in two 
 weeks arrived at Bath. 
 
 I have already mentioned that Col. Williamson ex- 
 pended a good deal of money in improving a number 
 of farms, and erecting a number of buildings on them, 
 which gave employment to many hands.* These hands 
 were my best customers, and paid up their accounts 
 every three months by orders on Williamson ; but 
 orders came from England to stop such improvements, 
 and shortly after Col. W. resigned his agency. Those 
 tenants and laborers got in my debt, at this time, 
 about $4,000, and in one night the whole of them 
 cleared out for Canada. They were a sad set of un- 
 principled scamps. They were a part of that " sprink- 
 ling of Yankees that came to make money." There 
 was not one foreigner, nor a Virginian, nor a Mary- 
 lander amongst them. They were a part of the first 
 settlers in the town of Wayne. I waited some time 
 till they got settled down in Upper Canada, and then 
 started to pay them a visit. At that time there were 
 no white inhabitants between Genesee River and Nia- 
 gara, a distance of about 90 miles. I lodged one night 
 with the Tonnewanta Indians, and the next day crossed 
 the river to Newark. I found some of my customers 
 
 ■^Several of the Haverling, Brundage and Faulkner farms, north 
 of the village of Bath, were cleared bj Capt. W. He built large 
 framed -barns on them, and settled them -with tenants. The scheme 
 was a failure. The soil, even at that early day, declared its abhor- 
 rence of estates other than for fee simple. After Capt. "W.'s depar- 
 ture, the farms were almost hopelessly overrun with oak brush.' 
 
 13* 
 
at York or Toronto, and some at the Bay of Canty. 
 I employed a lawyer named McDonald, who advised 
 me to get all I could from them in the first place, and 
 he would undertake to collect the balance if they were 
 worth it. They paid me about $200. I heard that 
 some of them had gone up Lake Erie, and were in De- 
 troit. I re-crossed Lake Ontario, went to Fort Erie, 
 and up the lake in the old U. S. brig Adams, She 
 was the only vessel on the lake, except one small 
 schooner. I was nine days on the passage. I found 
 some of my runaways at Detroit, but did not receive 
 one cent of them. I set my face homewards — was 
 taken sick on my passage down the lake, and lay six 
 weeks at Fort Erie. The physicians pronounced my 
 case hopeless, but owing to the kindness and attention 
 of Mrs. Crow, my landlady, and of Col. .Warren, the 
 commissary of the garrison, I recovered. I at length 
 reached home, after an absence of three months. My 
 lawyer McDonald was shortly after drowned in cross- 
 ing the lake. It was the last I heard of him or of my 
 papers. 
 
 My next start in business was attended with a little 
 better success. My brother Charles kept a small 
 store in Bath, and in the year 1800 we entered into 
 partnership. I moved to Dansville, opened a store, 
 and remained there one year. I did a safe business, 
 and took in that winter 4,000 bushels of wheat and 
 200 barrels of pork — built four arks, at Ashport, on 
 the Canisteo River, and ran them down to Baltimore. 
 These were the first arks that descended the Canisteo. 
 My success in trade that year gave me another fair 
 
139 
 
 start. My brother, in tlie mean time, went to Phila- 
 delphia to lay in a fresh supply of goods for both 
 stores ; but on his way home he died very suddenly at 
 Tioga Point. He had laid in about $30,000 worth of 
 goods. I returned to Bath with my family — continued 
 my store at Dansville — opened one at Penn Yan, and 
 sent a small assortment to Pittstown, Ontario County. 
 At this time I purchased the Cold Spring Mill site, 
 half way between Bath and Crooked Lake, of one 
 Skinner, a Quaker, with 200 acres of land, and pur- 
 chased from the Land Office and others about 800 
 acres, to secure the whole privilege. Here I erected a 
 flouring-mill, saw-mill, fulling-mill and carding ma- 
 chine. I perceived that wheat would be the principal 
 staple of the farmers, and I also knew from experience 
 that there would be great risk in running wheat to 
 Baltimore down a very imperfect and dangerous navi- 
 gation, and the risk in running flour, well packed, com- 
 paratively small. The flouring mill, with two run of 
 stones, I completed in the best manner in three 
 months. I sent handbills into all the adjoining coun- 
 ties, offering a liberal price for wheat delivered at my 
 mills, or at any stores in Dansville, Penn Yan and 
 Pittstown. I received in the course of the winter 
 20,000 bushels of wheat, two-thirds of which I floured 
 and packed at my mills ; built in the winter eight arks 
 at Bath, and four on the Canisteo. In the spring I 
 ran the flour to Baltimore, and the wheat to Columbia. 
 The river was in fine order, and we made a prosperous 
 voyage and a profitable sale. I cleared enough that 
 spring to pay all my expenditures and improvements 
 
140 
 
 on the Cold Spring property. After disposing of my 
 cargo, I went to Philadelphia and settled with my mer- 
 chants, laid in a very extensive assortment of goods, 
 loaded two boats at Columbia, and sent them up the 
 river to Painted Post. 
 
 My next project was to build a schooner on Crooked 
 Lake, of about thirty tons burden, for the purpose of 
 carrying wheat from Penn Yan to the head of the lake. 
 I advertised the schooner Sally as a regular trader on 
 Crooked Lake. The embargo to the contrary not- 
 withstanding^ (for Jefferson's long embargo had then 
 got into operation.) Some of my worthy democratic 
 brethren in the vicinity of Penn Yan charged me with 
 a want of patriotism for talking so contemptuously of 
 that wholesome retaliatory measure. I received a very 
 saucy and abusive letter from a very large, portly, 
 able-bodied gentleman of Yates County, whose corpor- 
 ation was much larger than his intellect. This famous 
 epistle raised my dander to a pretty high pitch, and I 
 answered his letter in his own style, and concluded by 
 saying that if Jefferson would not immediately raise 
 his embargo, I should go to work and dig a canal from 
 Crooked Lake to the Conhocton River, and the next he 
 would hear of the schooner Sally would be, that she 
 had run in, in distress, to Passamaquaddy, or some 
 other Northern harbor. This brought our correspond- 
 ence to a close. 
 
 I erected a store-house at each end of the lake. 
 The vessel and store-houses cost me $1,400. The 
 whole, as it turned out, was a total loss, as the lake 
 was frozen over at the time I most wanted to use it. 
 
141 
 
 The farmers did not then carry their wheat to market 
 before winter. 
 
 I had given notes the previous winter to the farmers 
 for wheat to the amount of about $3,000, payable in 
 June following, but after opening my new goods, I took 
 in money fast enough to meet the payment of my notes 
 when presented, which established my credit with the 
 farmers throughout the West, far and near. There 
 was not at that time any other market for wheat, until 
 the great canal was finished as far as Cayuga. Wheat 
 was brought to my mill from all parts of Seneca and 
 Ontario Counties and the Genesee River. After Col. 
 Troup came into the agency, he authorized me to re- 
 ceive wheat from any of the settlers that wished to 
 make payments in the land-office, and pay in my drafts 
 on the office for the same. 
 
 Indians were very numerous at that time. Their 
 hunting-camps were within short distances of each 
 other all over the county. The Indian trade was then 
 an object. I hired a chief of the name of Kettle-Hoop, 
 from Buffalo, to teach me the Seneca language. He 
 spoke good English. All words that related to the 
 Indian trade or traffic I wrote down in one column, and 
 opposite gave the interpretation in Seneca, and so I 
 enlarged my dictionary from day to day for three or 
 four weeks, until I got a pretty good knowledge of the 
 language. I then set out on a trading expedition 
 amongst the Indian encampments, and took my teacher 
 along, who introduced me to his brethren as seos 
 cagena^ that is, very good man. They laughed very 
 i heartily at my pronunciation. I told them I had a 
 
142 
 
 great many goods at Tanighnaguanda^ that is, Bath, 
 I told them to come and see me, and bring all their 
 furs, and peltry, and gammon, (that is, hams of deer,) 
 and I would buy them all, and pay them in goods very 
 cheap. They asked me, Tegoye ezeethgath and 
 Kegaugh^ that is, " Have you rum and wine, or fire- 
 water.'^ That fall, in the hunting season, I took in an 
 immense quantity of furs, peltry and deer hams. Their 
 price for gammon, large or small, was two shillings. 
 I salted and smoked that winter about 3,000 hams, 
 and sold them next spring in Baltimore and Phila- 
 delphia for two shillings per pound. At this time there 
 was an old bachelor Irishman in Bath, that kept a little 
 store or groggery, by the name of Jemmy McDonald, 
 who boarded himself, and lived in his pen in about as 
 good style as a certain nameless four-legged animal. 
 He became very jealous of me after I had secured the 
 whole of the Indian trade. The Indians used to com- 
 plain of Jamie, and say that he was tos cos^ that is, 
 not good — too much cheat, Jimmy, When I had com- 
 mand of the army at Fort George, in Upper Canada, 
 about 600 of these Indians were attached to my com- 
 mand. 
 
 The next spring I started down the rivers Conhocton 
 and Canisteo, with a large fleet of arks loaded with 
 flour, wheat, pork and other articles. The embargo 
 being in full force, the price of flour and wheat was 
 very low. At Havre de Grace I made fast two or three 
 arks loaded with wheat to the stern of a small schooner 
 which lay anchored in the middle of the stream, about 
 half a mile from shore. Being ebb tide, together with 
 
143 
 
 the current of the stream, we could not possibly land 
 the arks. Night setting in, there was no time to be 
 lost in getting them to shore, as there was a strong 
 wind down the bay, and it would be impossible to save 
 them if they should break loose from the schooner. I 
 left the arks in charge of William Edwards, of Bath, 
 whilst I went on shore to procure help to tow the arks 
 to shore. Whilst I was gone the wind increased, and 
 the master of the schooner hallooed to Edwards, who 
 was in one of the arks, that he would cut loose, as there 
 was danger that he would be dragged into the bay and 
 get lost, and he raised his axe to cut the cables. 
 Edwards swore if he cut the cables he would shoot him 
 down on the spot, and raising a handspike, took de- 
 liberate aim. It being dark, the Captain could not 
 distinguish between a handspike and a rifle. This 
 brought him to terms. He dropped the axe, and told 
 Edwards that if he would engage that I should pay 
 him for his vessel in case she should be lost, he would 
 not cut loose. Edwards pledged himself that I would 
 do so. 
 
 When I got on shore, I went to a man named Smith, 
 who had a fishery, and a large boat, with eighteen oars, 
 and about forty Irishmen in his employ, and offered to 
 hire his boat and hands. He was drunk, and told me 
 with an oath, that I and my arks might "go to the 
 d — 1." He would neither let the boat nor his hands 
 go. I went into the shanty of the Irishmen, and put- 
 ting on an Irish brogue, told them of my distress. 
 " The d — 1 take Smith, we will help our countryman, 
 by my shoul boys," said their leader. They manned 
 
144 
 
 the boat, and the arks were brought to the shore in 
 double-quick time. They refused to take pay, and I 
 took them to a tavern and ordered them as much as 
 they chose to drink. My friend Edwards and those 
 jolly Irishmen saved my arks and cargo. Edwards is 
 yet alive, and resides in Bath.* 
 
 The loss I sustained in flour and wheat this year 
 was great, but I did not feel it to be any serious inter- 
 ruption to my business. On my return, I concluded 
 that I must suspend the purchase of wheat while that 
 ruinous measure, the embargo, was in force, and fall 
 upon some other scheme and project. So I opened a 
 large distillery, which opened a market to the farmers 
 for their rye-corn, and even wheat, which I converted 
 into " fire-water," as the Indians very properly call 
 it. Jefferson's embargo did not injure the sale of it, 
 but the contrary, as whiskey was then worth by the 
 barrel from eight to ten shillings per gallon, and all 
 men, women, and children drank of it freely in those 
 days. I converted much of my whiskey into gin, 
 brandy, and cordials, in order to suit the palates of 
 some of my tippling customers. 
 
 I purchased in the fall droves of cattle and sent 
 them to Philadelphia. I also stall-fed forty head of 
 the best and largest cattle in the winter, which I ship- 
 ped on arks to Columbia, and drove to Philadelphia, 
 where they sold to good advantage. This mode of 
 sending fat cattle to market astonished the natives as 
 we passed down the river. It proved to be a profitable 
 
 business. 
 
 * He died in March, 1851. 
 
145 
 
 In the year 1814 I sold my Cold Spring Mills to 
 Henry A. Townsend for $14,000. I erected other 
 mills at Bath. In 1816 I ran down to Baltimore 
 about 1,000,000 feet of pine lumber and 100,000 feet 
 of cherry boards and curled maple. I chartered tliree 
 brigs and shipped my cherry and curled maple and 
 500 barrels of flour to Boston. I sold my flour at a 
 fair price, but my lumber was a dead weight on my 
 hands. At length, the inventor of a machine for spin- 
 ning wool by water power, ofl*ered to sell me one of his 
 machines for $2,500, and take lumber in payment. I 
 closed a bargain with him, which induced me to em- 
 bark in woolen manufacture. I obtained a loan from 
 the state, and was doing well until Congress reduced 
 the tarifi* for the protection of home industry to a mere 
 nominal tax. The country immediately after was 
 flooded with foreign fabrics, and but few woolen fac- 
 tories survived the shock. 
 
 I will now close my narrative so far as it relates to 
 my own business concerns, with a single remark, that 
 although I have been unfortunate at the close of my 
 business, yet I flatter myself that all will admit that 
 I have done nothing to retard the growth and pros- 
 perity of the village of Bath, or of the inhabitants 
 of Steuben county generally, especially at a time 
 when there were no facilities for the farmers of the 
 county to transport their produce to market other than 
 that which was aSbrded them by my exertions. And 
 whether the people of Steuben or myself have receiv- 
 ed the most benefit I leave for them to determine. 
 
 It would appear to be of very little consequence for 
 14 
 
146 
 
 me to state the number of civil offices that I held 
 during my residence in Steuben county. It will only 
 show how far I had the good will of the people. First, 
 I was appointed Justice of the Peace ; next, a Judge 
 of the Court of Common Pleas, and Surrogate of the 
 county. In 1816 I was appointed High Sheriff of the 
 county, which office I held four years. I held the of- 
 fice of Post Master of the village of Bath, about 
 eight years. The good people of Steuben also elected 
 me three years in succession to represent them in the 
 Legislature of the State of New York. — For all these 
 favors I felt then, and ever shall feel grateful. 
 
 This brief narrative is nothing more than a mere 
 synopsis of some of the principal events of my life 
 during the last sixty years. I find that all labor, 
 whether of the hand or head, have become burthen- 
 some, which will be a sufficient apology for its insuf- 
 ficiencies. 
 
 Note. — Gen. McClure, at the age of 64, again started " in pur- 
 suit of the Far West," which he says " had got a thousand miles 
 ahead of me," and located at Elgin, in Illinois, -where he resided 
 until his death in the summer of 1851. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CAPTAIN Williamson's administration — life at 
 
 BATH GRAND SIMCOE WAR RACES THEATRE 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE ANCIENTS BATH GAZETTE 
 
 COUNTY NEWSPAPERS THE BAR PHYSICIANS. 
 
 Captain Williamson having, toward the close of the 
 last century, fairly established himself at Bath, was the 
 greatest man in all the land of the West. His do- 
 minion extended from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario ; 
 a province of twelve hundred thousand acres owned 
 him as its lord ; Indian warriors hailed him as a great 
 chief; settlements on the Genesee, by the Seneca, and 
 at the bays of Ontario, acknowledged him as their 
 founder; and furthermore, by commission from the Go- 
 vernor of the State of New York, he was styled Colonel 
 in the militia of the Commonwealth, and at the head 
 of his bold foresters, stood in a posture of defiance be- 
 fore the Pro-Consul of Canada, who beheld with indig- 
 nation a rival arising in the Genesee forests, and tak- 
 ing possession of land which he claimed for his own 
 sovereign, with a legend of New Englanders and Penn- 
 sylvanians, mighty men with the axe and rifle, and 
 with colonies of Scotch and Irish boys, who cleaved to 
 the rebellious subjects of the King. 
 
148 
 
 His was no idle administration. It did not content 
 him to sit in idle grandeur in bis sumptuous log-for- 
 tress on the Conhocton, like a Viceroy of the Back- 
 woods, feasting on the roasted sides of mighty stags, 
 and eating luxurious hominy from huge wooden trench- 
 ers with the captains of his host. Neither did he 
 yield to those temptations which so often beset and 
 overpower governors sent to administer the affairs of 
 distant districts of the wilderness, who, instead of col- 
 lecting tribute from the refractory aborigines, and keep- 
 ing them well hanged, are forever scouring the woods 
 with hounds, and beating the thickets for bears, to the 
 great neglect of the royal finances. He galloped 
 hither and thither with restless activity — from Bath 
 to Big Tree, from Seneca to Sodus, from Canadarque 
 to Gerundigut, managing the concerns of his realm 
 with an energy that filled the desert with life and ac- 
 tivity. People heard of him afar off — in New England, 
 in Virginia, and in Canada. The bankers of Albany 
 and New York became familiar with his signature, 
 Englishmen and Scotchmen were aroused from their, 
 homes and persuaded to cross the ocean for Genesee 
 estates, and hearty young emigrants of the better sort 
 — farmers and mechanics of some substance — were 
 met upon their landing by recommendations to leave 
 the old settlements behind them, and try their fortunes 
 in Williamson's woods. Pioneers from below pushed 
 their canoes and barges up the rivers, and men of the 
 East toiled wearily through the forest with their oxen 
 and sledges. Not a few Virginian planters, with their 
 great household, abandoned their barren estates be- 
 
149 
 
 yond the Potomac, and performed marches up the Sus- 
 quehanna valley and over the Laurel Ridge in much 
 the same style (saving the camels) as the ancient Me- 
 sopotamian patriarchs shifted their quarters — young- 
 sters and young ladies making the journey gaily on 
 horseback, while the elderly rode in ponderous chaises, 
 secured against catastrophes by ropes and props, and 
 the shoulders of their negroes. Several such cavalcades 
 came over the Lycoming Road. One is yet remem- 
 bered with some interest by a few, as containing a pair 
 of distinguished belles, whose fame went before them, 
 and who were met on their descent, half frozen, from 
 the mountains in mid-winter, at the Painted Post Hotel, 
 by a couple of no less distinguished sprouts of North- 
 ern gentility, one of whom was afterwards so fortunate 
 as to gain the hand of one of the frost-bitten beauties. 
 
 The administration of the affairs of the estate be- 
 yond the limits of this county, is not, of course, a mat- 
 ter to be treated of with propriety in this volume. 
 Much of the agent's personal attention was of course 
 required in this, but he made his residence at Bath, 
 and to life and doings at the metropolis, our attention 
 will for the present be directed. 
 
 Captain Williamson dwelt in his stronghold on the 
 Conhocton, in high style, like a baron of old. All the 
 expenses necessary to support the state which such a 
 regent should maintain, were borne by the boundless 
 fund which he controlled. Gentlemen from far 
 countries came up to the woods on horseback, and 
 were entertained sumptuously, as the gallant captain's 
 feudal prototypes were wont to welcome to their castles 
 14* 
 
150 
 
 straggling crusaders, pilgrims and foreign knights. 
 There was an abundance of gentility in the land, both 
 sham and genuine. Sometimes the admiring wood 
 nymphs, who had heretofore seen only ill-favored and 
 bare-backed pagans striding through the forest, beheld 
 a solitary horseman, finely dressed in the most ap- 
 proved fashion of the cities, trotting down the inter- 
 minable lane of pines, followed at a respectful distance 
 by his servant (a spectacle which this good republican 
 county has not seen for many a year), and sometimes 
 Captain Williamson himself might be seen dashing in 
 gallant style through the woods, with a party of riders 
 from the Hudson or the Roanoke, mounted on full 
 blooded horses, while a functionary from the baronial 
 kitchen brought up the rear, with luncheon and a 
 basket of wine. There were, moreover, asses in lions' 
 hides, who came down with a great flourish, and passed 
 themselves off for real Nubians. A few old settlers 
 have occasion to remember one of these gentry, a 
 certain captain, " a great big man, and a mighty fine 
 gentleman, with ruffles in his shirt, and rings on his 
 fingers," who contracted to build Captain Williamson's 
 stupendous Marengo barns, and one day went off in a 
 portly and magnificent way, without paying his 
 carpenters. 
 
 The Pine Plains were unable to support such courtly 
 personages, and indeed the good stock of working men 
 and farmers who tilled the land, found the soil so un- 
 gracious, that they were not a little straightened for 
 the means of supporting life. Captain Williamson 
 transported his first flour from Northumberland, and 
 
151 
 
 a quantity of pork from Philadelphia. Afterwards 
 these luxuries were obtained as best they could be. 
 Flour was brought on pack horses from Tioga Point, 
 and a treaty of commerce was entered into with Jemima 
 Wilkinson, the prophetess, who had established her 
 oracle on the outlet of Crooked Lake, where her dis- 
 ciples had a mill and good farms. The first navigators 
 of Crooked Lake carried their cargoes in Durham 
 boats of six or eight tons burden, which they poled 
 along the shore, or when favoring breezes filled their 
 sails, steered through the mid-channel. These primi- 
 tive gondoliers have lived to see the end of their pro- 
 fession. Notwithstanding these resources, the village 
 of the Plains was sometimes reduced to great straits. 
 The Canisteo boy brought over his bag of wheat on a 
 horse, threw it down at the door of the agency-house, 
 and was paid five silver dollars the bushel. He drove 
 his bullock across the hills, slaughtered it at the edge 
 of the village, and sold every thing from hoof to horn 
 for a shilling the pound. He led over a pack-horse 
 laden with grain, paid all expenses, treated, and took 
 home eighteen dollars. One old farmer remembers 
 paying two dollars and a quarter for a hog's head, 
 " and it was half hair at that." " Bath was just like 
 San Francisco," says an old settler on the comfortable 
 farms of Pleasant Valley, " straw was a shilling a 
 bunch, and every thing else in proportion. Money 
 was plenty, but they almost starved out. They once 
 adjourned court because there was nothing to eat. If 
 it hadn't been for the Valley, the Pine Plains would 
 have been depopulated. After court had been in 
 
152 
 
 session two or three days, you would see a black boy 
 come down here on a horse, and with a big basket, 
 foraging. He would go around to all the farms to get 
 bread, meat, eggs, or anything that would stay life. 
 Bath was the hungriest place in creation. You could'nt 
 trust a leg of mutton to anybody but the land-agent.'^. 
 
 The citizens of the county made court week a kind 
 of general gathering time, and the larders of Bath 
 were sometimes speedily exhausted. The prudent 
 juryman before setting out from home, slung over his 
 shoulders a bag containing a piece of cold pork, and a 
 huge loaf of bread ; for no one knew to what extre- 
 mities the ministers of justice might be reduced. 
 
 Nevertheless the affairs of the metropolis went on 
 finely. The county prospered. The river was partially 
 relieved of incumbrances ; roads were opened ; bridges 
 were built ; farms were cleared. In 1796, or about 
 that time. Captain Williamson resorted to sundry bold 
 devices to arouse the backward people of the East, and 
 to spread the fame of his realm throughout the land. 
 Before entering upon those subjects, however, there is 
 a martial affair which must by no means be lightly 
 passed over — the grand Simcoe War of 1794. The 
 memory of this has almost perished. Few of the good 
 people know how a high and mighty potentate of the 
 North once rose up in wrath against Captain William- 
 son, and threatened to come down upon him with the 
 King's regiment, to storm his villages, to plant his ar- 
 tillery, if necessary, under the ramparts of his strong- 
 hold on the Conhocton, and to restore the Pine Plains 
 with the rest of Western New York, to the Crown of 
 
153 
 
 Great Britain. This is really the bloodiest paragraph 
 in the annals of Steuben County, and must be carefully 
 treasured. 
 
 In a rather stunning explosion of rhetoric, a certain 
 Fourth of July orator thus sounds the prelude to a 
 kind of epic anthem, in which he indulges, in view of 
 the threatened conflict with the Powers of the Pole. 
 " Hark ! what sounds are those which arise from the 
 " lowering North ! Lo ! the great Unicorn of Albion 
 " begins to moan in the forests of Canada, and that 
 " other red quadruped which rides rampant upon the 
 " British shield, begins to growl in an offensive and im- 
 " pertinent manner from the bristling ramparts of To- 
 " ronto. War's mighty organ murmurs in distant 
 " caverns, and clouds like black war- elephants, raise 
 " their dusky backs out of the waters of Lake On- 
 " tario." 
 
 Further ^quotations from this sonorous document 
 will be refrained from. Humbler imagery will suffice 
 to illustrate the passage of arms between Captain 
 Williamson and the high and mighty Viceroy of Upper 
 Canada. It is not generally known to our citizens 
 what an enemy arose against us in our infancy, and 
 how the infant settlement, like a sturdy little urchin, 
 squared itself in defiance against the veteran bruiser, 
 who offered to bully it out of its rights. 
 
 It is well known that although by the treaty of 1783, 
 the British agreed to evacuate forthwith all military 
 posts held by them within the territory of the United 
 States, the forts at Niagara and Oswego were held 
 under various pretexts until the year 1796. Certain 
 
154 
 
 claims of sovereignty over certain lands in Western 
 New York, were asserted by British officers, and their 
 presence, their influence over the Indians, and the in- 
 trigues of their agents, caused much apprehension and 
 annoyance to the settlers. Captain Williamson, as 
 we have seen, was interested in a settlement at Sodus. 
 On the 16th of August, 1794, Lieut. Sheaffe, a British 
 officer, called at that place, " by special commission 
 from the Lieutenant Governor of his Britannic Majes- 
 ty's province of Upper Canada," and in the absence of 
 Captain Williamson, left a letter for him, demanding 
 '* by what authority an establishment has been ordered 
 at this place, and to require that such a design be im-' 
 mediately relinquished." aot '^ 
 
 The potentate by whom this order was dictated' 
 was Colonel Simcoe, an officer, who, we believe, 
 served with some distinction at the head of a re- 
 giment of loyalists in the Revolution, a gentleman 
 undoubtedly of ability and discretion, and esteemed 
 a good Governor by the Canadians, but one who felti 
 sore at the late discomfiture of the Royal arms, and 
 who appears to have embraced the delusion for a long 
 time entertained by British officers of the old school, 
 of the possibility of marching through America with a 
 brigade of grenadiers. The Duke de la Rochefoucault 
 Liancourt, a French traveller, gives us the key to 
 Col. Simcoe's character and aspirations. — '' He dis- 
 " courses with much good sense on all subjects, but his 
 " favorite topics are his projects and war, which seem' 
 " to be the objects of his leading passions. He is ac- 
 " quainted with the military history of all countries. 
 
155 
 
 ^' No hillock catches his eje without exciting in his 
 " mind the idea of a fort which might be constructed 
 ^' on the spot, and with the construction of this fort he 
 " associates the plan of operations for a campaign, es- 
 " pecially of that which is to lead him to Philadelphia.^^ 
 
 Col. Simcoe, then, had a professional hobby. He 
 looked at banks and braes with the eye of Major Dal- 
 getty, and believed that hills were made for castles, 
 harbors for forts, and knolls for " sconces." Of Phar- 
 salia and Agincourt, of the Retreat of the Ten Thou- 
 sand, and the flank movements of Gustavus, of the tac- 
 tics of Gideon and the forays of Shishak, of battering- 
 rams and bomb- shells, of torpedos, catapults, pikes 
 and pistols — of such was the conversation of Col. Sim- 
 coe. Of marching from Niagara through the wilder- 
 ness like a Canadian Hannibal, of routing the back- 
 woodsmen and making captive the audacious William- 
 son in his stronghold among the mountains, of emerg- 
 ing from the forest with drums, clarinets and feathers, 
 of riding over the stupified farmers of Pennsylvania, 
 and trailing his victorious cannon through the streets 
 of Philadelphia, of hiding the humiliation of Saratoga 
 in a blaze of glory, and of generally grinding to pow- 
 der the rebellious enemies of the King — of such were 
 the dreams of Col. Simcoe. 
 
 As the first step toward the attainment of these 
 magnificent results, the Viceroy of His Britannic Ma- 
 jesty stole a barrel of flour. m'^h m 
 
 How this exploit was performed, — whether the store- 
 house was approached after the style of Turenne, and 
 the clerk summoned to surrender the key of the pad- 
 
156 
 
 lock, in the words of the Grand Turk at Constanti- 
 nople ; whether hoops were respected and staves treated 
 considerately, according to the usages of the Black 
 Prince and other mirrors of courtesy, we cannot say,, 
 though the Governor undoubtedly overhauled his libra- 
 ry and reviewed Rollin's History before he attempted 
 a manoeuvre which was probably without a precedent 
 in the " military history of all nations." The particu- 
 lars of this fell swoop of the Canadian war-kite do not 
 appear in the few books hastily consulted on that sub- 
 ject, — loftier matters, the evacuation of forts, the 
 movements of emissaries, and the correspondence of 
 functionaries, being solely discoursed of in those. Old 
 settlers, however, aver that a quantity of flour belong- 
 ing to Capt. Williamson was seized by the British and 
 carried oif. 
 
 Capt. Williamson resented the affront in a spirited 
 manner. A sharp correspondence followed between 
 himself and the trespassing parties. The cabinet at 
 Washington took the matter in hand. The prospect 
 looked, to the men in the forest, decidedly warlike. 
 The "black war elephants," which the orator saw 
 rising out of the billows of Ontario, it may be believed, 
 shook their bright and glittering tusks with evil pur- 
 port, while those other surly quadrupeds which dis- 
 played themselves in such am ill-tempered manner on 
 the " bristling ramparts of Toronto," undoubtedly in- 
 dulged in demonstrations equally hostile and alarming* 
 Captain Williamson had reason to believe that in the 
 event of actual hostilities, the vengeance of Col. Sim- 
 coe might seek him in his own city. He determined 
 
15V 
 
 to make ready for the blow, to rally the woodsmen, to 
 picket the public square, and to entertain the Canadian 
 Hannibal and his legions with such a feast of smoke, 
 steel, and sulphur, as those fire-eaters alone could re- 
 lish. 
 
 Gen. McClure in his manuscript says, " The ad- 
 ministration at Washington apprised Capt. William- 
 son of the difficulties that had arisen between this 
 country and Great Britain, and required him to make 
 preparations for defence. He therefore received a 
 Colonel's commission from the Governor of New York, 
 and immediately thereafter sent an express to Albany 
 for one thousand stand of arms, several pieces of can- 
 non and munitions of war. He lost no time in making 
 preparations for war. He gave orders to my friend 
 Andrew Smith to prepare timber for picketing on a 
 certain part of our village and ordered that I should 
 erect block-houses according to his plan. The work 
 went cheerily on. We could rally, in case of alarm, 
 five or six hundred, most of them single men. Our 
 Colonel organized his forces into companies. I had 
 the honor of being appointed Captain of alight infantry 
 company, and had the privilege of selecting one hun- 
 dred men, non-commisioned officers and privates. In 
 a short time my company appeared in handsome uni- 
 form. By the instructions of our Colonel we mounted 
 guard every night, — exterior as well as interior. Most 
 of our own Indians, whom we supposed were friendly, 
 disappeared, which wo thought was a very suspicious 
 circumstance."* 
 
 * Mr. Henry McElwee, of Mud Creek, was employed by CoL W. 
 
 15 
 
158 
 
 The young settlement, like the infant hero of old, 
 seemed likely to be attacked in its cradle by a serpent ; 
 and although the backwoodsmen, even of Canisteo, 
 were too considerate to strangle the British Empire 
 aggressively, and without an act of Congress author- 
 izing such violence, yet it is quite apparent that had 
 this great power seen fit to assail Col. Williamson's 
 little province, the consequences would have been dis- 
 astrous either to the one or tlie other. Every thing 
 was made ready. Further movements of those " black 
 war-elephants '' and the rest of the hostile menagerie 
 were awaited with interest. How soon will the snort- 
 ing charger of Simcoe prance upon the banks of the 
 terrified Conhocton, while his gloomy grenadiers stride 
 through the forest with fixed bayonets and frowns. 
 How soon will the flags of St. George flaunt under the 
 Eight-mile Tree, or field pieces roar under our splin- 
 tering palisades, while all the Six Nations, yelling in 
 the under-brush, drive the wolves distracted. The 
 apprehension of invasion was probably not very alarm- 
 ing, yet sufficiently so to excite patriotism and visions. 
 The lonely settler, sleeping in his cabin far in the fo- 
 rest, the loaded rifle standing at his bed side, the watch- 
 ful hounds growling without, dream that his house is 
 assailed by seventy or eighty Esquimaux, painted like 
 rainbows, and led on by George the Third in person, 
 while Lord Cornwallis supports his sovereign with a 
 ninety-gun ship and a bomb-ketch. 
 
 to cut white oak saplings eighteen feet long and eighteen inches 
 tliick at ihe butt, to be used for palisades, in enclosing the Pulteney 
 Square. A great many of these were cut and peeled ready for use. 
 
159 
 
 All stand waiting for tlie dogs of war. " The soli- 
 ^* tary express-rider now gallops through the streets of 
 ^' Northumberland, clatters along the rocky roads, 
 " wheels up the Lycoming, climbs the Laurel Bridge 
 •" and urges his stumbling horse over the rugged Ger- 
 " man path, descends to the Tioga, hurries along the 
 " rivers, and, riding at night into the guarded citadel 
 " of the Conhocten. declares tidings of peace. The 
 " lion, grumbling no longer on the ramparts of To- 
 ^' ronto, lies down in his lair ; the pacified unicorn 
 *' ceases to stamp upon the Canadian soil, and the 
 " black war-elephants haul in their horns, and sink 
 " behind the northern horizon." Such is the perora- 
 tion of the Fourth of July Orator. 
 
 In 1T96, Col. Williamson, by way of blowing a 
 trumpet in the wilderness, advertised to all North 
 America and the adjacent islands, that grand races 
 would be held at Bath. At the distance of half a mile 
 from the village, a race-course of a mile in circuit was 
 cleared and carefully grubbed, and all the resources of 
 the metropolis were brought forth for the entertain- 
 ment of as many gentlemen of distinction and miscel- 
 laneous strangers as might honor the festival by their 
 presence. But what probability was there that such a 
 festival would be celebrated with success in the midst of 
 '' a wilderness of nine hundred thousand acres'?" From 
 Niagara to the Mohawk were but a few hundred scat- 
 tered cabins, and in the south a dozen ragged settle- 
 ments, contained the greater part of the civilized popu- 
 lation till you reached Wyoming. But Col. W^illiam- 
 son did not mistake the spirit of the times. Those 
 
160 
 
 were the days of high thoughts and great deeds. Ob 
 the day, and at the pLice appointed for the race in the 
 proclamation, sportsmen from New York, Philadelphia 
 and Baltimore were in attendance. The high blades 
 of Virginia and Maryland, the fast-boys of Jersey, the 
 wise jockeys of Long Island, men of Ontario^ Pennsyl- 
 vania and Canada, settlers, choppers, gamesters and 
 hunters, to the number of fifteen hundred or two 
 thousand, met on the Pine Plains to see horses run — 
 a number as great, considering the condition of the 
 region where they met, as now assembles at State Fairs 
 and Mass Meetings. No express- trains then rolled 
 down from Shawangunk — no steamboats plowed the 
 lakes — no stages rattled along the rocky roads above 
 the Susquehanna. Men of blood and spirit made the 
 journey from the Potomac and the Hudson on horse- 
 back, supported by the high spirit of the ancients to 
 endure the miseries of blind trails and log taverns. 
 
 The races passed oiF brilliantly. Col. Williamson 
 himself, a sportsman of spirit and discretion, entered 
 a Southern mare, named Virginia Nell ; High Sheriff 
 Dunn entered Silk Stocking, a New Jersey horse — 
 quadrupeds of renown even to the present day. Money 
 was plenty, and betting lively. The ladies of the two 
 dignitaries who owned the rival animals, bet each 
 three hundred dollars and a pipe of wine on the horses 
 of their lords, or, as otherwise related, poured seven 
 hundred dollars into the apron of a third lady who was 
 stake-holder. Silk Stocking was victorious. 
 
 This, our most ancient festival, is rather picturesque, 
 seen from the present day. The arena opened in the 
 
161 
 
 forest, the pines and the mountain around — the varie- 
 gated multitude of wild men, tame men, rough men 
 and gentlemen, form a picture of our early life worthy 
 of preservation. Canisteo was there, of course, in high 
 spirits, and throughout the season, with self-sacrificing 
 devotion to the ancient, honorable and patriotic diver- 
 sion of horse-racing, seconded, with voice and arm, 
 every effort of Baron Williamson to entertain the 
 country's distinguished guests. Young Canisteo went 
 away with mind inflamed by the spirited spectacle, and 
 before long introduced a higher grade of sport into 
 their own valley. A pioneer of that region, known to 
 the ancients as a youth of game and a " tamer of 
 horses," will, at the present day, talk with great satis- 
 faction of a Jersey horse, which not only bore away 
 the palm in the Canisteo Races, but on the Pine Plains, 
 in the presence of men from Washington, Philadelphia 
 and New York, (fifteen hundred dollars being staked 
 on the spot by the strangers,) distanced the horse of a 
 renowned Virginia Captain, who, being a " perfect 
 gentleman," invited the owner of the victorious beast 
 and his friends to dinner, and swore that nothing was 
 ever done more handsomely even in the ancient domi- 
 nion. Bath and the neighborhood was, in those days, 
 the residence of a sagacious and enterprising race of 
 sportsmen. They not only raised the Olympic dust 
 freely at home, but made excursions to foreign arenas, 
 sometimes discomfiting the aliens, and sometimes, it 
 must be confessed, returning with confusion of face. 
 It is told how a select party of gentlemen — Judges, 
 Generals and Captains — once went down to Ontario 
 15^ 
 
162 
 
 County " to beat the North ;" how, after the horses 
 had been entered, an Indian came up and asked per- 
 mission to enter a sorry-nag which he brought with 
 him, which with some jeering was granted ; how, to 
 the general astonishment, the pagan's quadruped flew 
 off with a " little Indian boy sticking to his back like 
 a bat," and led the crowd by a dozen rods. The ju- 
 dicial and military gentlemen straightway set out for 
 home, each with an insect in his ear. The great race- 
 course was not often used, during Williamson's time, 
 for the purpose for which it was made, after the first 
 grand festival. It was chiefly valuable as a public 
 drive for the few citizens who were so prosperous as to 
 keep chaises. There was, however, a course on the 
 Land Office Meadows south of the village, which was 
 at different times the scene of sport. 
 
 Colonel Williamson further embellished the back- 
 woods with a theatre. The building, which was of 
 logs, stood at the corner of Steuben and Morris streets. 
 A troop of actors from Philadelphia, kept we believe, 
 at the expense of the agents, entertained for a time 
 the resident and foreign gentry with dramatic exhibi- 
 tion of great splendor. Of these exhibitions we have 
 no very distinct account, but the public eye was pro- 
 bably dazzled by Tartars, Highlanders, Spaniards, 
 Brigands, and other suspicious favorites of the Tragic 
 Muse. The excellencies of the legitimate drama seem 
 to have been harmoniously blended with those of the 
 circus, and with the exploits of sorcery. We hear of one 
 gifted genius who astonished the frontiers by balancing 
 a row of three tobacco pipes on his chin, and by other 
 
163 
 
 mysterious feats which showed him to be clearly in 
 league with the psychologists. 
 
 The race course and the theatre brought the village 
 which they adorned into bad odor with the sober and 
 discreet. Without intending to speak of such institu- 
 tions with more civility than is their due, w^e maintain 
 that in the present case they brought upon the neigh- 
 borhood where they existed, and upon the men who 
 sustained them, more reproach than they merited. 
 The theatrical exhibitions were but harmless absurd 
 affairs at worst. The races were perhaps more annoy- 
 ing evils. People are certainly at liberty to think as 
 badly of them as they please, but they should con- 
 sider the spirit of the times, the military and Europe- 
 an predilections of their founder, and also his object 
 in their institution (which of course does not of itself 
 change the moral aspect of the matter.) Colonel 
 Williamson was inclined to hurry civilization. The 
 " star of empire" was too slow a planet for him. He 
 wished to kindle a torch in the darkness, to blow a 
 horn in the mountains, to shake a banner from the 
 towers, that men might be led by these singular phe- 
 nomena to visit his establishment in the wilderness. 
 Therefore, jockeys were switching around the mea- 
 dows before the land was insured against starvation, and 
 Richard was calling for '' another horse" before the 
 county grew oats enough to bait him. 
 
 Notwithstanding the extenuating circumstances. Ba- 
 ron Williamson's village bore a very undesirable repu- 
 tation abroad — a reputation as of some riotous and 
 extravagant youngster, who had been driven as a 
 
164 
 
 hopeless profligate from his father's house, and in a 
 wild freak built him a shantj in the woods, where he 
 could w^hoop and fire pistols, drink, swear, fight, and 
 blow horns without disturbing his mother and sisters. 
 This was in a great measure unjust. The main em- 
 ployment of the town was hard work. " He couldn't 
 bear to have a lazy drunken fellow around him," says 
 an old settler speaking of the agent, '' and if any such 
 came he sent him away." The men of the new country 
 were rough and boisterous it is true, but also industri- 
 ous and hardy, and out of such we " constitute a 
 State." It has often been flung into our faces as a 
 reproach, that when the first missionary visited Bath, 
 on a Sunday morning, he found a multitude assembled 
 on the public square in three distinct groups. On one 
 side the people were gambling, on another they were 
 witnessing a battle between two bulls, and on a 
 third they were watching a fight between two bul- 
 lies. We are happy to say that the truth of this ras- 
 cally old tradition is more than doubtful. Aside from 
 the manifest improbability that men would play cards 
 while bulls were fighting, or that bulls would be trumps 
 while men were fighting, the evidence adduced in sup- 
 port of the legend is vague and malicious. To sup- 
 pose that Colonel Williamson's ambition was to be 
 at the head of a gang of banditti who blew horns, 
 pounded drums, fought bulls and drank whiskey from 
 Christmas to the Fourth of July, and from the Fourth 
 of July around to Christmas again, is an exercise of 
 the rights of individual judgment in which those who 
 indulge themselves should not of course be disturbed. 
 
165 
 
 It may be true that sometimes, indeed often, a horn 
 or horns may have been blown upon the Pulteney 
 Square, at unseasonable hours of the night, in a man- 
 ner not in accordance with the maxims of the most 
 distinguished composers; it is not impossible that a 
 drum or drums may have been pounded with more vig- 
 or than judgment at times when the safety of the re- 
 public, either from foreign foes or from internal sedi- 
 tions, did not demand such an expression of military 
 fervor ; it will not be confidently denied by the cau- 
 tious historian that once or twice, or even three times, 
 a large number of republicans may have assembled 
 on the village common to witness a battle between a 
 red bull and a black one : but from these cheerful eb- 
 ulitions of popular humor, to jump to the conclusion 
 that the public mind was entirely devoted to horns, 
 drums and bulls, is a logical gymnatic worthy of a 
 Congressman. 
 
 These aspersions upon the character of the early 
 settlers as men of honor and sobriety, are repelled 
 with much sharpness by the few survivors. " We 
 were poor and rough," say they, " but we were hon- 
 est. We Jit and drinked some to be sure, but no more 
 than everybody did in those days."" 
 
 " The man that says we were liars and drunkardsj. 
 is a liar himself, and tell him so from me, will you I 
 There isn't half the honesty in the land now that there 
 was then. Oh ! what miserable rogues you are now. 
 You put locks on your doors, and you keep bull dogs^ 
 and then you can't keep the thieves out of your houses 
 after all !" 
 
166 
 
 " I have seen them do in Bath what ye wouldn't do 
 the morrow. When a pack-horse with flour came from 
 Pang Yang or Tioga Pint, I have seen the ladies carry 
 it around to them that hadn't any. Many and many's 
 
 the time 1 have seen the M 's and' the C 's and 
 
 their daughters take plates of flour and carry them 
 around to every cabin where they were needy. I have 
 seen it often, and ye wouldn't do the same at Bath the 
 morrow." 
 
 In like manner on the Canisteo, you hear — '' People 
 now, friend, ain't a comparison to those Ingens. They 
 were simple creatures, and made their little lodges 
 around by the hills, three hundred Ingens at a time, 
 and never stole a thing. Those Ingens came to our 
 houses, and were around nights, and never stole the 
 first rag. Now, that's the truth, friend. They would 
 snap off a pumpkin now and then perhaps, or take an 
 ear of corn to roast, but they were just the simplest 
 and most honest creatures I ever see. But now. Lord ! 
 you can't hang up a shirt to dry but it will be stolen." 
 
 Occasionally there is an expression of contempt at 
 the decay of chivalry. " There was men enough then 
 that would have knocked a fellow down if he said Boo, 
 It isn't half an affront now to call a man a liar or a 
 rascal. If you whip an impudent dog of a fellow, you 
 get indicted." 
 
 Captain Williamson further astonished the back- 
 woods with a newspaper. In 1796, the Bath Gazette 
 und Genesee Advertiser was published by Wm. Ker- 
 sey and James Eddie. This was the earliest newspaper 
 ■of Western New York, — the Ontario Gazette, of Ge- 
 
167 
 
 neva, established in the same year, being the second. 
 We have not had the good fortune to find a copy of 
 this ancient sheet. Capt. Williamson, in 1798, said, 
 " The printer of the Ontario Gazette disperses weekly 
 not less than one thousand papers, and the printer of 
 the Bath Gazette from four to five hundred." How 
 long the latter artisan continued to disperse his five 
 hundred papers we are unable to say. The candle 
 was probably a '' brief" one, and soon burned out, 
 leaving the land in total darkness, till Capt. Smead's 
 Democratic Torch, twenty years afterwards, illuminated 
 the whole county, and even flashed light into the ob- 
 scure hollows of Allegany. Of this happy event we 
 may take the present opportunity to speak. 
 
 In 1816, Mr. David Rumsey published at Bath the 
 *' Farmers' Gazette," and Capt. Benjamin Smead 
 started at the same place the " Steuben and Allegany 
 Patriot." This sheet is the most unquestionable an- 
 tiquity which the County has produced. Though but 
 thirty-five years have elapsed since Capt. Smead 
 opened his republican fire on the enemies of human 
 rights, (a fire which never so much as slackened for 
 more than a quarter of a century,) such have been the 
 improvements in the art of printing that in comparison 
 with the bright, clean country newspapers of 1851, the 
 Patriot looks rusty enough to have been the Court 
 Journal of that ancient monarch. King Cole, if it were 
 lawful to suppose that the editor would ever have con- 
 sented to manage the " administration organ" of such 
 a rampant old aristocrat. The Patriot differed in 
 several important particulars from our modern county 
 
168 
 
 papers. Geneva, Olean, and Dansville advertisements 
 were important features. The editorial matter was 
 brief, and the first page was occupied with advertise- 
 ments of sheriff's sales and the like, instead of such 
 " thrilling thousand dollar prize tales " as " The Black 
 Burglar of BuJgaria, or the Bibliomaniac of the 
 Jungles," and others of like character, which in our 
 modern home newspapers sometimes crowd off even the 
 Treasury Report and elegant extracts from the leading 
 journals. The columns devoted to news would poorly 
 satisfy the demand of the present generation. We 
 think the news cold if forty-eight hours old, but then 
 tidings from New York in ten days almost smoked, 
 and Washington items two weeks old were fairly scald- 
 ing. The political matter was also of an ancient tone. 
 There was a little sparring between Observer and 
 Quietis on the one hand, and some invisible enemy on 
 the other who dealt his blows under cover of the On- 
 tario Messenger. The antiquarian of nice ear will also 
 detect antiquity in the rythm of caucus resolutions. 
 It is comforting to the patriotic citizen to think how 
 much cheaper eloquence is now than formerly : how 
 much easier one can strike the stars with his lofty head 
 from the Buffalo platform, the Philadelphia platform, 
 or the Baltimore platform, than from the Bucktail 
 platform and other old-fashioned scaffolds. The style 
 of abuse which prevails at present in school-house con- 
 ventions is inclined to be rolling and magnificent ; in 
 the days of the old Patriot it was direct and well 
 planted, straight, short, and distinct. 
 
 It appears that even then there was a brisk agita- 
 
169 
 
 tion about the division of the County, Steuben was like 
 Poland in the clutches of the Three Powers. Three 
 '* rogues in buckram let drive " at it, — Penn Yan in 
 front, and Tioga and Allegany in the flanks ; and like 
 a man beset with thieves, the stout old County backed 
 against the Pennsylvanian border and " dealt " by the 
 Patriot very efficiently. 
 
 In the Patriot of Jan. 19, 1819, occurs the following 
 proclamation indicative of the spirit of the times during 
 court week. 
 
 GRAND HUNT. 
 
 A Hunting Party will be formed for the purpose of 
 killing wolves, bears, foxes, panthers, &c., to commence 
 on the 20th of January, at T o'clock A. M., and will 
 close the same day at 3 P. M. 
 
 This being the week of the sitting of the court, gen- 
 tlemen from towns of this vicinity are invited to meet 
 at Capt. Bull's Hotel at 7 o'clock, on Friday the 15th 
 inst., to aid in completing arrangements for conducting 
 the grand hunt. 
 
 Bath, Jan. 12, 1819. 
 
 Capt. How^ELL Bull, 
 Appointed Commanding Officer of the day." 
 
 THE BAR, COURT, &C. 
 
 The year 1T96 is furthermore a memorable one in 
 
 our annals, for that in the said year was organized that 
 
 wrangling brotherhood, the Steuben County Bar. A 
 
 few straggling birds of the legal feather had alighted 
 
 16 
 
170 
 
 on the Pine Plains in the preceding year, but were not 
 recognized as constituting a distinct and independent 
 confederacy. These adventurous eagles however found 
 themselves in 1T96 released from allegiance to the 
 Ontario Bar by the act organizing Steuben County, 
 and thenceforth confederated for the more systematic 
 indulgence of their instincts, under the name and 
 style of the Steuben County Bar, 
 
 A framed court house, and a jail of hewn logs was 
 erected for the furtherance of justice, and in the former 
 of these edifices the first Court of Common Pleas, held 
 in and for the County of Steuben, convened on the 21st 
 day of June, 1796. 
 
 The Honorable William Kersey was the presiding 
 Judge. Judge Kersey was a grave and dignified 
 Friend from Philadelphia. He came to Steuben as a 
 surveyor, and practised that profession, and performed 
 the duties of Lord High Chancellor of the county for 
 several years, when he returned to Pennsylvania, 
 greatly esteemed by the people whom he judged. 
 Abraham Bradley, and Eleazer Lindley, Esqs., of 
 Painted Post, were the Associate Judges. 
 
 "Proclamation made, and court opened," says the 
 record. "Proclamation made for silence; commis- 
 sions to the Judges, Justices, Sherifi*, Coroner and 
 Surrogate read ; George Hornell, Uriah Stephens and 
 Abel White were qualified as Justices of the Peace ; 
 Stephen Ross as Surrogate." 
 
 The following attorneys and counsellors appeared in 
 due form. Nathaniel W. Howell, (late of Canandai- 
 gua,) Vincent Matthews, (late of Rochester,) William 
 
171 
 
 Stuart, (wlio presented " letters patent under the 
 great seal of this State, constituting him Assistant 
 Attorney General, [District Attorney,] for the counties 
 of Onondaga, Ontario, Tioga and Steuben,") Wm. 
 B. Verplanck, David Jones, Peter Masterton, Thomas 
 Morris, Stephen Ross, David Powers. 
 
 The first Court of General Sessions was held in 
 1796. In addition to the Judges mentioned in the 
 Record of the Common Pleas, oflfenders against the 
 people encountered the following array of Justices of 
 the Peace. John Knox, William Lee, Frederick 
 Bartles, George Hornell, Eli Mead, Abel White, 
 Uriah Stephens, Jr. 
 
 The first Grand Jury was composed of the following 
 citizens :— John Sheather, Foreman ; Charles Cameron, 
 George McClure, John Cooper, Samuel Miller, Isaac 
 ^ullender, John Stearns, Justus Woolcott, John 
 Coudry, John Van Devanter, Alexander Fuller ton, 
 Amariah Hammond, John Seely, Samuel Shannon. 
 This jury presented two indictments for assault and 
 battery, and were thereupon discharged. 
 
 General McClure makes of the earl}'^ members of 
 the bar the following notice. " I will mention as a 
 very extraordinary circumstance, that although our 
 new settlement consisted of emigrants from almost all 
 nations, kindred and tongues, j^et not a single gentle- 
 men of the legal profession made his appearance 
 amongst us during the first two years. However, had 
 they come, we had not much employment for them in 
 their line of business, as all our litigations were settled 
 by compromise, or by the old English law of battle. 
 
172 
 
 and all decisions were final. In our code there was 
 no appellant jurisdiction. In the following year we 
 had a full supply, shortly after the organization of 
 Steuben Count}^. 
 
 The first arrival was George D. Cooper, of Rhine- 
 beck, on the North River. He was appointed the first 
 Clerk of the County. The next arrivals were Messrs. 
 Jones, Masterton and Stuart, from New York. Next 
 William Howe Cuyler, from Albany. Mr. Cuyler was 
 a fine portly elegant young man of very fashionable 
 and fascinating manners, of the Chesterfield order. In 
 1812, General Amos Hall appointed him aid-de-camp, 
 and while stationed at Black Rock he was killed by a 
 cannon ball from Fort Erie. Major Cuyler was a very 
 active intelligent officer, and his death was much la- 
 mented. He left a young wife and one son. 
 
 Next in order came Dominick Theophilus Blake, 
 one of the sons of Erin-go-hragh. He was a well'- 
 educated young man, but his dialect and manner of 
 speech afforded much amusement for the other mem- 
 bers of the bar. He had but little practice and did 
 not remain long with us, but where he went and what 
 became of him, I never have heard. 
 
 Samuel S. Haight, Esq., moved from Newtown with 
 his family to Bath. Gen. Haight had an extensive 
 practice, and a numerous and interesting family of 
 sons and daughters. He is yet living, and resides in 
 the county of Allegany. Daniel Cruger, William E. 
 Rochester, William Woods, Henry Welles and Henry 
 W. Rogers, members of the Steuben County Bar, 
 
173 
 
 studied law in Mr. Haight's office. Edward Howell, 
 Esq., of Bath, studied law in Gen. Cruger's office. 
 
 Gen. Vincent Matthews resided for many years in 
 Bath. He was said to be at the head of the bar for 
 legal knowledge, but was not much of an advocate. 
 Judge Edwards, Schuyler Strong, Jonas Clark, Jona- 
 than Haight, John Cook, and^Leland and McMaster, 
 are all that I can remember of the old stock. Ah, yes ! 
 there's one more of my old friends — Cuthbert Harri- 
 son, a Virginian, a young man of good sense, and whe- 
 ther drunk or sober, he was a good natured clever 
 fellow." 
 
 Mr. Cuthbert Harrison is described as a young man 
 of fine talents, and one of the most eloquent advocates 
 in the western part of the State. 
 
 Gen. Daniel Cruger, for a long time a leading mem- 
 ber of the bar and an influential politician, was a 
 printer by trade. He worked in the office of the old 
 Bath Gazette, before the year 1800. Afterwards he 
 published a newspaper in Owego. Adopting the legal 
 profession, he practised with success at Bath. In 
 1712, he was elected a member of the Legislature, and 
 chosen Speaker of the House. After this he was 
 chosen representative in the same body for three suc- 
 cessive years. In 1813, he served with credit as Major 
 of Infantry, under Gen. McClure, on the frontiers. 
 In 1816, he was elected Member of Congress. In 1823, 
 of about that time, he was again sent to the Legisla- 
 ture. He afterwards removed to Syracuse, returned 
 to Bath, and in 1833, removed to Virginia, where he 
 continued in the practice of the law until his death, in 
 16* 
 
174 
 
 1843. Gen. Cruger, under the judicial system of 
 New York, was once Assistant Attorney General, or 
 District Attorney, of the district composed of the 
 counties of Allegany, Steuhen, Tioga, Broome and 
 others. After the abolition of this system, he was 
 District Attorney of the county of Steuben. 
 
 Of the early Physicians of the county, we have not 
 much to say. Dr. Stockton, of New Jersey, and Dr. 
 Schultz, a German, came in with Capt. Williamson, 
 and were the most prominent of the pioneer physicians. 
 The surgeon, in ancient times, lived a rough life. His 
 ride was through forests without roads, across rivers 
 without bridges, over hills without habitations. Bears 
 rose up before his startled steed as he rode at dusk 
 through the beechen groves of the uplands, and wolves, 
 made visible by the lightning, hung around him as he 
 groped through the hemlocks in the midnight storm, 
 and insanely lusted for the contents of his saddle-bags. 
 
t'V! 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SKETCHES OF THE SETTLEMENT OF VARIOUS DISTRICTS. 
 PLEASANT VALLEY (toWN OF URBANA.) 
 
 The settlement in that well known prolongation of 
 the bed of Crooked Lake, famed as Pleasant Valley, 
 was the first made under the auspices of Captain Wil- 
 liamson, and was for many years the most prosperous 
 and one of the most important in the county. The 
 soil was exceedingly productive, and yielded not only 
 an abundance for the settlers, but furnished much of 
 the food by which the inhabitants of the hungry Pine 
 Plains were saved from starvation. For the young 
 settlers in various parts of the county, the employment 
 afforded by the bountiful fields of the valley during 
 haying and harvest, w^as for many years an important 
 assistance. In the midst of pitiless hills and forests 
 that clung to their treasures like misers, Pleasant 
 Valley was generous and free-handed — yielding fruit, 
 grain and grass with marvellous prodigality. 
 
 The first settlers of Pleasant Valley were William 
 Aulls and Samuel Baker. Mr. Aulls, previous to the 
 year 1793, was living in the Southern part of Penn- 
 sylvania. In the spring of 1793, he made the first 
 clearing and built the first house in the valley. In 
 
176 
 
 the autumn of the same year he brought up his family. 
 The house which he built stood on the farm no>Y occu- 
 pied by John Powers, Esq. 
 
 Samuel Baker was a native of Bradford County, in 
 Connecticut. When 15 years of age, he was taken 
 prisoner by a party of Burgoyne's Indians, and re- 
 mained with the British army in captivity till relieved 
 by the Surrender at Saratoga. After this event he 
 enlisted in Col. Willett's corps, and was engaged in 
 the pursuit and skirmish at Canada Creek, in which 
 Captain Walter Butler, (a brother to the noted Col. 
 John Butler,) a troublesome leader of the Tories in the 
 border wars of this State, was shot and tomahawked 
 by the Oneidas. In the spring of 1787, he went alone 
 into the West, passed up the Tioga, and built a cabin 
 on the open flat between the Tioga and Cowenisque, 
 at their junction. He was the first settler in the valley 
 of the Tioga. Harris, the trader, was at the Painted 
 Post, and his next neighbor was Col. Handy, on the 
 Chemung, below Big Flats. Of beasts, he had but a 
 cow, of '' plunder," the few trifling articles that would 
 suffice for an Arab or an Arapaho; but like a true son 
 of Connecticut, he readily managed to live through the 
 summer, planted with a hoe a patch of corn on the 
 flats, and raised a good crop. Before autumn he was 
 joined by Captain Amos Stone, a kind of Hungarian 
 exile. Captain Stone had been out in " Shay's W^ar," 
 and dreading the vengeance of the government, he 
 sought an asylum under the southern shadow of Steu- 
 ben County, where the wilderness was two hundred 
 miles deep, and where the Marshal would not care to 
 
177 
 
 venture, even when backed by the great seal of the 
 Republic. On Christmas day of 1786, Mr. Baker 
 leaving Captain Stone in his cabin, went down the 
 Tioga on the ice to Newtown as previously mentioned,* 
 and thence to Hudson, where his family was living. 
 At the opening of the rivers in the spring, he took his 
 family down the Susquehanna to Tioga Point in a 
 canoe. A great freshet prevented him from moving 
 up the Chemung for many days, and leaving his family, 
 he struck across the hills to see how his friend Captain 
 Stone fared. On reaching the bank of the river oppo- 
 site his cabin, not a human being was to be seen, ex- 
 cept an Indian pounding corn in a Samp-mortar. Mr. 
 Baker supposed that his friend had been murdered by 
 the savages, and he lay in the bushes an hour or two 
 to watch the movements of the red miller, who proved, 
 after all, to be only a very good-natured sort of a Man- 
 Friday, for at length the Captain came along driving 
 the cow by the bank of the river. Mr. Baker hailed 
 him, and he sprang into the air with delight. Cap- 
 tain Stone had passed the winter without seeing a 
 white man. His Man-Friday stopped thumping at 
 the Samp-mortar, and the party had a very agreeable 
 re-union. 
 
 Mr. Baker brought his family up from Tioga Point, 
 and lived here six years. During that time the pion- 
 eer advance had penetrated the region of which the 
 lower Tioga Valley is a member. A few settlers had 
 established themselves on the valley belovf them, and 
 
 * Chapter 2. 
 
178 
 
 around the Painted Post were gathered a few cabins 
 where now are the termini of railroads — the gate of a 
 coal and lumber trade, bridges, mills and machinery. 
 Elsewhere all was wilderness. The region, however, 
 had been partially explored by surveyors and hunters. 
 Benjamin Patterson, while employed as hunter for a 
 party of surveyors, discovered the deep and beautiful 
 valley which extends from the Crooked Lake to the 
 Conhocton. Seen from the brink of the uplands, there 
 is hardly a more picturesque landscape in the county, 
 or one which partakes more strongly of the character 
 of mountain scenery. The abrupt wooded wall on 
 either side, the ravines occasionally opening the flank 
 of the hills, the curving valley that slopes to the lake 
 on one hand, and meets the blue Conhocton range on 
 the other, form at this day a pleasing picture. But 
 to the hunter, leaning on his rifle above the sudden 
 declivity — before the country had been disfigured with 
 a patchwork of farms and forest — the bed of the val- 
 ley was like a river of trees, and the gulf, from which^ 
 now rise the deadly vapors of a steam sawmill, seemed" 
 like a creek to pour its tributary timber into the' 
 broader gorge below.* 
 
 In his wanderings the hunter occasionally stopped 
 at the cabins of Tioga, and brought report of this fine 
 Talley. Mr. Baker did not hold a satisfactory title to- 
 his Pennsylvania farm, and was inclined to emigrate.' 
 Capt. Williamson visited his house in 1792, (probably 
 
 * This view, and the prospects from the South Hill of Bath, and 
 the summit of the Turnpike between Howard Flatts and Hornells- 
 Tille, are among the finest in the county. 
 
179 
 
 while exploring the Lycoming Road,) and promised 
 him a farm of any shape or size, (land in New York, 
 previous to this, could only be bought by the town- 
 ship,) wherever he should locate it. Mr. Baker ac- 
 cordingly selected a farm of some three hundred acres 
 in Pleasant Valley — built a house upon it in the au- 
 tumn of 17985 and in the following spring removed his 
 family from the Tioga. He resided here till his death 
 in 1842, at the age of 80. He was several years As- 
 sociate and First Judge of the County Court. Judge 
 Baker was a man of a strong practical mind, and of 
 correct and sagacious observation. 
 
 Before 1795, the whole valley was occupied. Be- 
 ginning with Judge Baker's farm, the next farm 
 towards the lake was occupied by Capt. Amos Stone, 
 the next by William AuUs, the next by Ephraim 
 AuUs, the next by James Shether. Crossing the val- 
 ley, the first farm (where now is the village of Ham- 
 mondspost,) was occupied by Capt. John Shether, the 
 next by Eli Read, the next by William Barney, the 
 j! next by Richard Daniels. Nearly all of these had 
 ii been soldiers of the revolution. Capt. Shether had 
 II been an active officer, and was engaged in several bat- 
 i ties. Of him. Gen. McClure says: — ''He was Cap- 
 t tain of Dragoons, and had the reputation of being an 
 |t excellent officer and a favorite of Gen. Washington. 
 I He lived on his farm at the head of Crooked Lake in 
 t. good style, and fared sumptuously. He was a gener- 
 r ous, hospitable man, and a true patriot." The She- 
 ' thers were from Connecticut. 
 
180 
 
 Judge William Read was a Rhode Island Quaker. 
 He settled a few years after the revolution on the 
 '' Squatter lands '' above Owego, and, being ejected, 
 moved westward with his household after the manner 
 of the times. Indians pushed the family up the river in 
 canoes, while the men drove the cattle along the trail 
 on the bank. Judge Read was a man of clear head 
 and strong sense, of orderly and accurate business 
 talent, and was much relied upon by his neighbors to 
 make crooked matters straight. 
 
 The Cold Spring Valley was occupied by Gen. Mc- 
 Clure in 1802, or about that time. He erected mills, 
 and kept them in activity till 1814, when Mr. Henry 
 A. Townsend entered into possession of the valley, and 
 resided in the well known Cold Spring House till his 
 death in 1839. Mr. Townsend removed from Orange 
 County, in this State, to Bath in 1796. He was 
 County Clerk from 1799 to 1814 — the longest tenure 
 in the catalogue of county officers. 
 
 Mr. Lazarus Hammond removed from Dannsville to 
 Cold Spring in 1810, or about that time, and after- 
 wards resided near Crooked Lake till his death. He 
 was Sheriff of the county in 1814, and, at a recent 
 period, Associate Judge of the County Court. 
 
 FREDERICKTON. 
 
 At the organization of the county, all that territory 
 which now forms the towns of Tyrone, Wayne, Read- 
 ing, in Steuben County, and the towns of Barrington 
 and Stark ey, in Yates, was erected into the town of 
 
181 
 
 Frederickton. The name was given in honor of Fre- 
 derick Bartles, a German, who emigrated with his 
 family from New Jersey, in 1793, or about that time, 
 and located himself at the outlet of Mud Lake, at the 
 place known far and wide in early days as Bartles'^ 
 Hollow, He erected under the patronage of Captain 
 Williamson a flouring and saw mill.* General 
 McClure says of him, " Mr. Bartles was appointed a 
 Justice of the Peace. He was an intelligent, generous 
 and hospitable man. His mill-pond was very large, 
 covering about one thousand acres of land, and was 
 filled with fish, such as pike, suckers, perch and eels, 
 which afforded a great deal of sport for the Bath gen- 
 tlemen in the fishing season. Such parties of pleasure 
 were entertained by Squire Bartles, free of costs or 
 charges, and in the best style. We fared sumptuously, 
 and enjoyed the company of the old gentleman. He 
 possessed an inexhaustible fund of pleasant and inter- 
 esting anecdote. His dialect was a mixture of Dutch 
 and English, and was very amusing." 
 
 Bartles' Hollow, in the days of Captain Williamson, 
 was thought a spot of great importance. Mud Creek 
 was then a navigable stream, and it was thought that 
 the commerce of Mud Lake and its outlet would re- 
 quire a town of considerable magnitude at the point 
 
 * Benjamin Patterson was employed by Captain W. to supply the 
 workmen with wild meat while the mill was building. He was paid 
 two dollars a day, and allowed the skins of the animalskilled. He kill- 
 ed at this time on " Green Hill" nearly an hundred deer and several 
 bears in three months, and his companion a hunter, named Broeher, 
 destroyed nearly as many. 
 
 17 
 
182 
 
 where Squire Bartles had established himself. In the 
 speculating summer of 1796 the proprietor was offered 
 enormous prices for his hollow, but he declined to part 
 with it. In 1798 Mr. Bartles rafted one hundred thou- 
 sand feet of boards from his mills to Baltimore. In 
 1800 he ran two arks from the same place ; of which 
 adventure the following minute was entered by the 
 County Clerk, in Vol. 1, of Records of Deeds : — 
 
 " Steuben County, — This fourth day of April, one 
 thousand eight hundred, started from the mills of 
 Frederick Bartles, on the outlet of Mud Lake, (Fred- 
 erickstown,) two arks of the following dimensions : — 
 One built by Col. Charles Williamson, of Bath, 72 
 feet long and 15 feet wide ; the other built by Nathan 
 Harvey, 71 feet long, and 15 feet wide, were conducted 
 down the Conhocton, (after coming through Mud Creek 
 without any accident,) to Painted Post for Baltimore. 
 Those arks are the first built in this county, except 
 one built on the Conhocton at White's saw-mill, five 
 miles below Bath, by a Mr. Patterson, Sweeny and 
 others, from Penna., 70 feet long, and 16 wide, was 
 finished and started about the 20th of March the 
 same year. 
 
 This minute is entered to show at a future day the 
 first commencement of embarkation in this (as is 
 hoped) useful invention. 
 
 By Henry A. Townsend, 
 
 Clerk of Steuben Co." 
 
 The success of Squire Bartles' arks produced as 
 
183 
 
 great a sensation in the county as the triumph of the 
 ^' Collins steamships" has created in our day ; but 
 craft of this species have long been abandoned by our 
 lumbermen. Mud Creek has failed since the clearing 
 of the forests, and the produce of the Mud Lake country 
 seeks the eastern market by canals and railroads. 
 
 Among the early residents in the town of Bradford 
 were Henry Switzer, Samuel S. Camp, Abram Rosen- 
 bury, Henry Switzer, senior, Thomas Rolls, Michael 
 Scott, Daniel Bartholomew and Captain John N. 
 Hight. 
 
 General William Kernan, of County Kavan, in Ire- 
 land, was the first settler in that part of the old town 
 of Fredericktown, which is now the town of Tyrone. 
 He settled in 1800 upon a lot, in a tract of 4000 acres, 
 which had been pnrchased of Low & Harrison, by Mr. 
 Thomas O'Connor of tho County of Roscommon in 
 Ireland. Mr. O'Connor proposed to settle a colony of 
 his countrymen on this tract. He himself lived for a 
 time in a log-house on the hill by Little Lake, above 
 the farm now occupied by Gen. Kernan. Two chil- 
 dren, a son and daughter, accompanied him in his so- 
 journ in the woods. The former is now Charles O'Con- 
 nor, Esq., the eminent lawyer of New York city. A 
 large number of Irish Emigrants settled on the O'Con- 
 nor tract, but after a few seasons abandoned their im- 
 provements — being discouraged at the labor of clear- 
 ing the land, and discontented at the want of religious 
 advantages according to the practice of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. Gen. Kernan alone remained on the 
 tract. 
 
184 
 
 Other early settlers of the town of Tyrone were 
 Benjamin Sackett, Abram Fleet, sen., Gersham Ben- 
 nett, Thaddeus Bennett, Abram Bennett, Jonathan 
 Townsend, Capt. John Sebring. 
 
 Elder Ephraim Sanford, Josiah Bennett, Solomon 
 Wixon, Josiah Bennett, Joshua Smith, John Teeples, 
 Simeon Sackett, John Sackett, sen., and John Wood- 
 ard, were among the early settlers of the town of 
 Wayne, in 1800 or 1803. It seems, however, that 
 this township was settled several years before. Judge 
 Dow, of Reading, says, " I think it was in the fall of 
 1791, I went to view land in township No. 5, second 
 range, (now Wayne). At that time two families only 
 were there, Henry Mapes and Zebulon Huif. I went 
 to the same place again in 1794, and learned that 
 Solomon Wixon, with a large famil}^, two of the name 
 of Silsbee, two or three Sandfords and others had set- 
 tled there." 
 
 Judge Dow settled near the present village of Read- 
 ing Centre, in 1T98. David Culver followed him in 
 1800. Other early settlers of the towns of Reading 
 and Starkey who came from 1800 to 1804, or about 
 that time, were William Eddy, Abner Hurd, Timothy 
 Hurd, Simeon Royce, Matthew Royce, Reuben Hen- 
 derson, Andrew Booth, Samuel Gustin, John Bruce, 
 and Samuel Slioemaker. Among others who settled 
 about the year 1806, were John and James Roberts, 
 Danieh Shannon, Caleb Fulkerson, Richard Lanning, 
 George Plumer, and Andrew McDowell. 
 
 Judge Dow having been consulted by the writer of 
 this sketch with regard to a supposed inaccuracy in 
 
185 
 
 the outline of Seneca Lake on an old map, gave him 
 a few notes of the settlement of the country, which are 
 as follows : 
 
 " I left Connecticut and came to the head of Seneca 
 Lake in April, 1789, and stayed there, and at the 
 Friends' Settlement until late in the fall, then, after 
 being away a few months, returned to the head of the 
 Seneca Lake in March, 1790, and continued to reside 
 there and at the place where I now reside until the 
 present time. The Friends (Jemima Wilkinson's fol- 
 lowers) made their settlement in 1788 and 1789, but 
 between them and the head of the lake, a distance of 
 20 miles, it was not settled till the time above men- 
 tioned (1798). ^ 
 
 '' The map represents the Seneca Lake as extending 
 south to Catharine's Town. This is not correct. 
 There were Indian clearings at the Head and at Catha- 
 rine (as the two places were familiarly called) when 
 white people came there in 1789. There was a marsh 
 but a little higher than the level of the lake extending 
 from the beach of the lake, up south, nearly to Catha- 
 rines, and quite across the valley, excepting a tract of 
 tillable land lying between the northern part of said 
 marsh and the west hill, and extending south from the 
 beach about one-half or three-fourths of a mile to a 
 part of said marsh. This land was called the Flat at 
 the Head on which David Culver and myself resided. 
 This flat was the true locality of the Culverstown of 
 the map and the village of Cuher^s of the book, any- 
 thing to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 " The rains and the melting of the snow raised the 
 17* 
 
186 
 
 lake some every spring about that time, (1790), and 
 the greatest part of the marsh was covered with water. 
 A stranger might possibly mark down the marsh for 
 part of the lake. 
 
 " I saw Caleb Gardner in 1789, who said he lived 
 at Big Flatts, and understood from him that others 
 had settled there. In the spring of 1790 1 saw Col. 
 Erwin at Chemung, who with one or two men was driv- 
 ing some cattle to his son's at Painted Post. The 
 lands along each side of Catharine Valley were not set- 
 tled, I think, till 1798 or 1799. People then came 
 and settled, three, four, and five miles southeast of 
 Catharine's. This place was called Johnson's Settle- 
 ment. On the lands west of the valley settlements 
 were made probably about the same time or soon after. 
 
 " When I first came to Newtown Point as it was 
 then called (now Elmira) there were but few houses in 
 that place. There were six or seven on the road and 
 at Horse-heads. Further on were two houses, but at 
 that time I think they were not occupied. There was 
 one house within about a mile of Catharine ; there 
 were two or three in Catharine, and two or three on 
 the flat at the head of Seneca Lake. I am pretty sure 
 these were all the houses that had been built at that 
 time (April 1789) at Newtown, at the head of the 
 lake and between the two places." 
 
 PRATTSBURGH. 
 
 [Most of the facts contained in the following sketch of the settle- 
 ment of the town of Prattsburgh, are derived from a manuscript 
 bistory of that town prepared by Samuel Hotchkin, Esq., of Fredo- 
 
187 
 
 Ilia, (late of the village of Prattsburgli,) and politely furnished by 
 that gentleman to the Editor. The manuscript is in the form of a 
 Report made by the direction of the Prattsburgh Lyceum. It is to 
 be regretted that the limits of this volume do not permit more liberal 
 extracts from Mr. Hotchkin's interesting chronicle.] 
 
 The pioneer of Prattsburgh was Captain Joel Pratt. 
 There were actual residents within the boundaries of 
 that town before Captain Pratt, but its settlement and 
 sale were conducted b}^ him ; by his care it was peo- 
 pled by citizens who at an early day were reputed by 
 all the county, men of good conscience and steady 
 habits ; and by his sound sense, and his discretion in 
 conducting the settlement of the town, he gained an in- 
 fluence and enjoyed a public confidence at home, which 
 entitle him to be styled the Founder of Prattsburgh. 
 
 The first purchase of Township Nunmber Six, in the 
 third range, was made in the year 1797, or about that 
 time, by a surveyor named Preston, from Westerlo, 
 in Albany County. Judge Kersey was admitted to an 
 interest in the purchase by Preston, but a difficulty 
 arose between the two which it is unnecessary to de- 
 tail and the claims of both were ultimately relinquished. 
 The township was first known as Kersey town. 
 
 In 1799, or about that time, Capt. Pratt came into 
 Steuben County. He had previously resided in Spen- 
 certown, Columbia County, and was induced by the 
 promised importance of the Steuben region, under the 
 Williamson administration, to make a purchase among 
 the discouraging mountains of the Five-mile Creek 
 country in preference to settling himself upon lands in 
 the neighborhood of Geneva or Canandaigua, which were 
 
188 
 
 then held at a lower price than the hemlock hills of 
 Wheeler. Captain Pratt's first purchase was of several 
 thousand acres in Township No. 5, Range 3, being in 
 the present town of Wheeler. Captain Pratt entered 
 the forest with a gang of men, cleared one hundred 
 and ten acres, and sowed it with wheat. On his re- 
 turn to the East, the rough life of the Steuben woods 
 had so reduced and blackened the fair and portly far- 
 mer of Columbia County, that he was not recognized 
 by his family. The following winter Captain Pratt 
 removed his family into the wilderness. In 1802, be- 
 ing not altogether satisfied with his purchase, he was 
 permitted to exchange it for the township above. 
 
 William Root, of Albany County, joined with him 
 in the contract for the purchase of Township No. 6, 
 by the terms of which contract, Messrs. Pratt and 
 Root charged themselves with the survey, sale and set- 
 tlement of the Township, two hundred acres being re- 
 served for the support of a resident clergyman. They 
 were to sell no land at a lower price than ^2 50 per 
 acre, and were to receive one-half of all monies paid 
 for land, at a rate exceeding $2 00 per acre, after they 
 had paid the sum of $30,000 into the Pulteney Land 
 OflQce. The connection of Messrs. Pratt & Root was 
 terminated in 1806. 
 
 '' Mr. Pratt had determined to form a church as 
 well as a town. It appears to have been his intention 
 to have cast his lot with the hardy pioneers of the 
 forest, while Mr. Root, who continued to reside at Al- 
 bany, seemed to regard the whole enterprise in no 
 Other light than as a hopeful speculation." .... 
 
189 
 
 " Captain Pratt was a member of a Congregational 
 Church in the village of Spencertown. It was his de- 
 termination to settle himself and family in this Town- 
 ship, and establish a religious society in the order to 
 which he had been accustomed. With a view to the 
 accomplishment of this object, he required every per- 
 son to whom he sold land, to give a note to the amount 
 of fifteen dollars on each hundred acres of land pur- 
 chased by him, payable within a given time, with the 
 legal interest annually, till paid to the Trustees of the 
 Religious Society which should be formed. 
 
 " The first permanent settler within this township 
 was Mr. Jarcd Pratt, a nephew of Capt. Pratt, who 
 came here to reside in the spring of 1801. Mr. Pratt 
 had just set out in his career of life, and brought with 
 him a wife to cheer and sweeten the deprivations inci- 
 dent to a pioneer's life. The farm which he selected, 
 and which he continued to occupy as long as he lived^ 
 is the same as is now owned by Mr. John Van Housen, 
 and there a row of Lombardy poplars at this day 
 marks the place of the first shelter built for 
 civilized man within this township. Concerning this 
 family. Rev. Mr. Hotchkin, in his history of the 
 Presbyterian Church in Western New York, takes 
 the following notice : — ' They constituted the only 
 family in the township for about two years and 
 a half. Their hardships were many, and their priva- 
 tions great. No neighbor within several miles, no 
 roads except a mere trail and a dense forest all around 
 them. To obtain flour for their bread, Mr. Pratt 
 would yoke his oxen, fill his bag with grain, lay it 
 
190 
 
 across the yoke of his oxen, and drive his team eleven 
 miles to Naples, where was the nearest mill to his habi- 
 tation, the road all the way lying in a dense forest 
 without any habitation contiguous to it.' Mr. Pratt 
 continued to reside here till 1840, when, by a fall, he 
 broke his neck, and died instantly in the 63d year of 
 his age. Throughout his long life, he was respected 
 and beloved, and in his death it may with perfect 
 truthfulness be said, ' Tho' many die as sudden, few 
 as well.' 
 
 " The next settler, if settler he might be called, was 
 Daniel Buell. He built him a rude shanty on what 
 is now an orchard, and attached to Mr. Isaac Ains- 
 worth farm. Buell was a jolly and most eccentric 
 bachelor. His usual and almost constant employment 
 was hunting. He resided here but a few years, when 
 he sought a deeper solitude, and soon afterwards was 
 murdered by a party of Indians in Ohio." — {MS* 
 Hist, of Prattshurgh.) 
 
 Rev. John Niles, a licentiate of a Congregational 
 Association, settled, in 1803, with his family on a lot 
 of eighty acres, being part of the farm occupied by the 
 late Mr. Josiah Allis, upon the east side of the present 
 Bath road, which was given to him by Capt. Pratt as 
 an inducement to settle upon his township. " The 
 Sabbath after Mr. Niles' arrival he held divine service 
 in Jared Pratt's house, and from that day to the pre- 
 sent, these people have never been without these sacred 
 ministrations. About this time, the sons of Capt. 
 Pratt, in advance of their parents, settled upon the 
 
191 
 
 farm which has ever since been held by some one or 
 more of his immediate descendants. 
 
 " Next in order of settlers, and in the winter of 
 1804, came the families of William P. Curtis, Samuel 
 Tuthill, and Pomroy Hull. At this time, the only 
 road leading to town was the Two Rod Road, (from 
 Bath towards Naples.) Solsbury Burton came like- 
 wise in 1804, and occupied what used to be well known 
 as the Burton farm. About this time came Capt. 
 Pratt himself, with the remainder of his family from 
 the East Hill, in Wheeler, and where he had resided 
 for two or three years previous. 
 
 " In the year 1806, we find a goodly array of set- 
 tlers. In addition to those we have named, are the 
 following : — Enoch Niles, Rufus Blodget, Isaac Waldo, 
 Judge Hopkins, John Hopkins, Dea. Ebenezer Rice, 
 Robert Porter, Dea. Gamaliel Loorais, Samuel Hayes, 
 Dea. Abial Lindley, Moses Lyon, Uriel Chapin, Asher 
 Bull, Bohan Hills, Stephen Prentiss, and perhaps 
 others. 
 
 ^' Whoever, at the present day, will walk through 
 our grave-yard, to read there the records of the past 
 generation, will find most of these names upon those 
 rude head-stones, now defaced and nearly obliterated 
 by the hand of time, for most of them have long since 
 gone down to the silent resting place of tlie dead 
 The inscriptions there recorded are homely, but th 
 are truthful."— (JW5f. Hist,) 
 
 The first extensive clearing in Prattsburgh was c e 
 of seventy acres, including the Public Square of t;i3 
 
192 
 
 Village, made in 1803, under the direction of Captain 
 Pratt. The first framed building was a barn built by 
 Joel Pratt, Jr., in 1804, '' and that identical building 
 yet stands by Bishop Smith's orchard, and upon his 
 lot. This building was during the first few years of 
 our annals a sort of " Hotel Dieu." Families there 
 rested until they could arrange the rude appointment 
 of their own homes, sometimes in numbers of half a 
 dozen at once. And till the erection of the first meet- 
 ing-house, it was the usual place of holding public 
 
 worship The first merchants of our town were 
 
 Joel Pratt, jr. and Ira Pratt, two sons of Captain 
 Pratt. The first hotel-keeper was Aaron Bull. His 
 house, which was'but a log one, was probably opened 
 in 1806 or 1807, and adjoined Dr. Pratt's office. 
 The buildings of Dr. Hayes now cover the same 
 ground The same burying ground we at pre- 
 sent use for interment, was set apart for this purpose 
 in 1806. The first contribution to this now immense 
 multitude, was Harvey Pratt, a young man of 22 
 years, and son of Capt. Joel Pratt." {MS. Hist.) 
 
 The Congregational church was organized in 1804, 
 and at that time consisted of eleven members. The first 
 <jhurch edifice was erected in 1807, and was a framed 
 building standing near the southeast corner of the 
 public square. The worshippers it seems were at first 
 inclined to build it of logs, greatly to the displeasure 
 of Capt. Pratt, who '^retorted upon the societ}^ the 
 anathema pronounced against those who dwelt in ceil- 
 ed houses while the temple of the Lord laid waste." 
 
193 
 
 Rev. John Niles and Rev. James H. Hotchkin were 
 the early ministers of this society. 
 
 The West Hill settlement was commenced in 1805^ 
 by Stephen Prentiss, Warham Parsons, and Aaron 
 Cook. The settlement of Riker's Hollow was com- 
 menced in 1807, by Michael Keith, who was joined 
 in 1810, by Thomas Riker, John Riker, and William- 
 Drake. 
 
 " Captain Pratt, who figures so conspicuously in 
 our early history, and who was the founder of our 
 town, and to a great extent the fashioner of its polity, 
 continued to reside among this people till 1820, when- 
 he ended his mortal career. His last days were a sort 
 of patriarchal retirement, and to this day his memory 
 is cherished by all who knew him." — {MS. Hist.) 
 
 Judge Porter died in 1847. He was for many years 
 one of the most prominent citizens of the town, and was 
 a man of liberal education, of much literary taste, and 
 an efficient and conscientious magistrate. The annal- 
 ist, ofthe town says, " He probably filled more offices 
 of trust among this people than any other man of his 
 day. Our early town records show that all the most 
 responsible offices within our bounds have from time to 
 time been filled by him." 
 
 Rev. James H. Hotchkin, a venerable and widely 
 known citizen of Prattsburgh, (author of The History of 
 the Presbyterian Church in Western JYeio York, here- 
 tofore alluded to,) died September 2d, 1851. He was 
 the son of Beriah Hotchkin, a pioneer missionary. 
 He graduated at Williams College, 1800; studied 
 theology with Dr. Porter, of Cattskill, removed to 
 18 
 
194 
 
 Prattsburgli in 1809, and there labored twenty-one 
 years. The Genesee Evangelist says of*him " He had 
 a mind of a strong masculine order, well disciplined 
 by various reading, and stored with general knowledge. 
 The doctrinal views of the good old orthordox New 
 England stamp w^iich he imbibed at first, he main- 
 tained strenuously to the last, and left a distinct im- 
 pression of them wherever he had an opportunity to 
 inculcate them. His labors through the half century 
 were * abundant' and indefatigable. He had the hap- 
 piness of closing his life in the scenes of his greatest 
 usefulness." 
 
 WHEELER. 
 
 The first permanent settler in this town was Capt. 
 Silas Wheeler, a native of Rhode Island, who emi- 
 grated from Albany County, in the State of New York, 
 in the year 1790 or 1800. Capt. Joel Pratt made a 
 purchase of several thousand acres in this town, in the 
 year previous, and had made a clearing of one hundred 
 and ten acres, and raised a crop of wheat from it, on 
 ■what is now known as the '' Mitchell farm." Capt. 
 Pratt was permitted, by Capt. Williamson, to ex- 
 change this for a tract in the town of Prattsburgh, 
 where he removed in 1804, or about that time. 
 
 Capt. Wheeler had been a man of adventure. He 
 •was one of Benedict Arnold's men in the perilous 
 march through the forests of Maine, and at the assault 
 of Quebec stood near Montgomery when he fell. He 
 was four times taken prisoner in the revolutionary war 
 — twice on land, and twice when roving the high seas 
 
195 
 
 as privateer's man. From his first captivity, he was 
 soon released by exchange. After another capture, 
 he lay in prison more than a year. Being taken a 
 second time on one of the daring privateers that tor- 
 mented the British coast, he was confined in the Jail 
 of Kinsale, in Ireland, and condemned to be hung as a 
 pirate — or at least was very rudely treated, and threa- 
 tened with hanging by powers that had the authority 
 to make good their threats. He escaped this disagree- 
 able fate by the assistance of a friendly Irishman, and 
 of the distinguished orator and statesman Henry Grat- 
 tan. Mr. Grattan procured for him a passport, pro- 
 tected him from press-gangs and the police, and se- 
 cured for him a passage to Dunkirk, in France. 
 
 Capt. Wheeler was induced to settle in Steuben 
 County by Preston, the Surveyor, (mentioned in the 
 sketch of the settlement of Prattsburgh,) who, on his 
 return to Westerlo, spread the most glowing accounts 
 of the fertility and prospects of the Conhocton Country. 
 Capt. Wheeler's settlement was made at the place now 
 occupied by his grand-son, Mr. Grattan H. Wheeler. 
 , Capt. Wheeler's first trip to mill, is worthy of re- 
 cord. There were, at the time when he had occasion 
 to "go to mill," three institutions in the neighbor- 
 hood where grinding was done — at the Friend's Settle- 
 ment, at Bath, and at Naples. The mill-stones of 
 Bath had suspended operations — there being nothing 
 there to grind, as was reported. Capt Wheeler made 
 a cart, of which the wheels were sawn from the end of 
 a log of curly-maple ; the box was of corresponding 
 architecture. He started for Naples with two oxen 
 
196 
 
 attached to this vehicle. Two young men went before 
 the oxen with axes and chopped a road, and the clumsy 
 chariot came floundering through the bushes behind — 
 bouncing over the logs, and snubbing the stumps, like 
 a ship working through an ice-field. The first day 
 they reached a point a little beyond the present vil- 
 lage of Prattsburgh — a distance of six miles from their 
 starting point — and on the second, moored triumphant- 
 ly at the mill of Naples. 
 
 ■ Capt. Wheeler was a man famous for anecdotes 
 throughout all the land. Not one of the multitude of- 
 Captains, who flourished in our country in early days, 
 earned his military title more fairly. He died in 1828, 
 aged 78. Hon. Grattan H. Wheeler, son of Capt. 
 Wheeler, died in 1852. He had been a prominent 
 citizen of the county many years, and had served in 
 the State and National Legislature. 
 
 After Capt. Wheeler's settlement, lots were pur- 
 chased, and improvements made by persons residing 
 abroad, some of whom afterwards established them- 
 selves on these farms. Thomas Aulls, Esq., a son of 
 William Aulls, the first settler of Pleasant Valley, 
 and Col. Barney, of the same neighborhood, with Philip 
 Murtle, who lived on the farm now owned by Gen. 
 Otto F. Marshall, were among the earliest settlers 
 after the Wheelers. These, with settlers named Bear, 
 Ferral, and Rifle, were mentioned by our informant as 
 constituting all, or nearly all, of the original stock of 
 settlers. Esq. Gray came in at an early time. The 
 Gulf Road to Bath was opened by Capt. Wheeler ; the 
 Kennedyville Road was opened a year or two after- 
 
197 
 
 wards. The first saw-mill in the town stood at the 
 Narrows of the Five Mile Creek, and was built by 
 Capt. Wheeler. 
 
 PULTENEY. 
 
 The first settlement in the town of Pultenej, was 
 made on Bully Hill, by John Van Camp and D. Thomp- 
 son, in 1797. The following are the names of other 
 early settlers from 1799 to 1807 :— Samuel Miller, G. 
 F. Fitz Simmons, Thomas Hoyt, Abraham Bennet, 
 Ephraim Eggleston, John Kent, Joseph Hall, senior, 
 Samuel Wallis, John Turner, John Ellis, Augustus 
 Tyler, and Ezra Pelton. John Gulick kept the first 
 dry goods store in the town.* 
 
 HOWARD. 
 
 - Abraham Johnston settled in 1806 where Richard 
 Towle now lives, and about the same time, Samuel Ba- 
 ker settled where J. Rice now lives, and Reuben Smith, 
 Abraham Smith and Abel Bullard, settled on the road 
 between Gofi's Mills and the old Turnpike, near the 
 old State Road. Jacob, Benjamin and Daniel N. Ben- 
 nett, settled in 1807, or about that time, on what is 
 yet called Bennett's Flatts, Job B. Rathbun, with 
 three of his brothers, in the Rathbun settlement, in 
 1808 or 1809. William Allen and David Smith, in 
 the Pond settlement in 1810 or '11, and Captain Joel 
 Rice and Esq. Israel Baldwin in 1811 or '12. Ma- 
 jor Thomas Bennet settled on the old turnpike about 
 
 * Communicated by Melchior Wagener, Es 
 
 18* 
 
198 
 
 ■six miles east of Hornellsville, toward 1808. Colonel 
 Henry Kennedy built a saw-mill at Goff's Mills in 
 1809. William Goff, Esq., came in in 1812. 
 
 The town of Howard was set off from the old town 
 of Canisteo in 1812. The first town meeting was held 
 at the house of Simeon Bacon, on the old turnpike, in 
 the spring of 1813. In the year 1812, there were about 
 thirty families in the town.* 
 
 HORNBY AND ORANGE. f 
 
 Asia and Uriah Nash, the first settlers of Hornby, 
 settled in 1814, in the north part of the town called 
 Nash settlement. Edward Stubbs, Ezra Shaw, Samuel 
 Adams, and Jesse Underwood, settled in 1815. In 
 the same year, Jesse Piatt, John Babbins and Amasa 
 Stanton; settled in the Piatt settlement, in the south- 
 western part of the town. James S. Gardner, Ches- 
 ter Knowlton, and Adin Palmer settled in the Palmer 
 settlement in 1816. 
 
 Darius Hunt, Chauncey Hunt, James Overhiser and 
 Thomas Hurd, were the first settlers in Orange, on 
 Mead's Creek, probably in 1812. 
 
 CONHOCTON.J 
 
 Captain Williamson, about the time of the settle- 
 ment of Bath, sent a man named Bivin, to the Twenty- 
 two mile Tree^ (now Blood's Corners,) to keep a tavern. 
 
 * Communicated bj William Goff, Esq. 
 •)• Communicated bj Henry Gardner, Esq. 
 I Commnicated by Mr. Levi Chamberlain. 
 
199 
 
 This point was known in early times as Bivin^s Cor- 
 ners. The first settlement made in the town of Con- 
 hocton after this, was made, according to the best of 
 our information, in the Raymond Settlement, by James 
 and Aruna Woodward. In 1806, Joseph Chamber- 
 lain^ of Herkimer County, settled on the Daris farm, 
 near Liberty Corners. His household consisted of a 
 cow and a dog. All his property, besides his axe, was 
 contained in a small pack. For his cow the accommo- 
 dations were rather rude. When the hour of milking 
 arrived, the settler resorted to the strange expedient 
 of driving the beast " a straddle of a log," and milk- 
 ing into a notch cut with his axe. Into this he crum- 
 bled his bread, and ate therefrom with a wooden spoon. 
 
 In the following year, Levi Chamberlain, Captain 
 Jones Cleland, Joseph Shattuck and Deacon Horace 
 Fowler, settled in this neighborhood. Other early 
 settlers were — Timothy Sherman, James Barnard, 
 Samuel Rhoades, Jesse Atwood, Isaac Morehouse, and 
 Charles Burlingham. The Brownsons settled at Loon 
 Lake at an early day. Abram Lint settled at Lint 
 Hill, in 1809, or about that time, and afterwards the 
 Hatches, the Ketchers, and others. 
 
 Captain Cleland built in 1808 the first mills. Levi 
 Chamberlain built in 1809, the first frame house at 
 Liberty Corners, and Joseph Shattuck kept the first 
 tavern at the same place about the same time. 
 
 On account of some legislative awkwardness, the 
 settlers in the northern part of the town, went for sev- 
 eral years to Bath, to vote at town meetings, while 
 those in the southern part went to Dansville. The 
 
200 
 
 two squads of voters used to meet each other on the 
 road when going to the polls. 
 
 THE COUNTRY SOUTH OF CANISTEO. 
 
 The followmg are names of settlers who were living 
 in 1810 in the town of Troupsburgh, which then com- 
 prised nearly all the territory in the county south of 
 the Canisteo River, *' Beginning on the east side, the 
 settlers were Caleb Smith, Daniel Johnson, Lemuel 
 Benham, Breakhill Patrick, Samuel B. Rice, Nathaniel 
 Mallory, Elijah Johnson, Jqseph Smith, Reazin Searle 
 and Bethuel Tubbs. Further west, on the old State 
 Road, were Ebenezer Spencer, Andrew Simpson and 
 a family of Marlatts, Elisha Hance, Philip Cady, Eli- 
 jah Cady, Samuel Cady, Peter Cady, Caleb Colvin, 
 Matthew Grinnolds, William Card, Charles Card; and 
 west of the old State Road, were Nathan Coffin, Henry 
 Garrison, Edmund Robinson, Jeremiah Nudd. The 
 last three came in 1812, Alanson Perry came in 1810. 
 There was some others here in an early day, as by the 
 census of 1815, there were over 500 inhabitants."* 
 Daniel Johnson was Supervisor till 1812, and Charles 
 Card from 1813 to 1819. Samuel B. Rice was Town 
 Clerk for about twenty years. The first grist-mill 
 was built by Caleb Smith, the second by George Mar- 
 tin in 1812. " There was but little improvement made 
 for several years, and many of the first settlers became 
 discouraged and emigrated to the West, and the town 
 seemed to be at a stand. Those remaininghave become 
 
 * Communicated by Charles Card, Esq. 
 
201 
 
 comfortable in circumstances." The Brotzman's, 
 Andrew Boyd, the Rowleys and John Craig were early 
 settlers of Jasper. 
 
 ORANGE.* 
 
 " That part of the Town of Orange called Mead's 
 Creek was settled, or began to be settled, a few years 
 previous to 1820. Among the inhabitants who were 
 there previous to or about that time, were Jedediah 
 Miller, Andrew Fort, David Kimball, Esq., and his 
 brother Moses, John Dyer, Sylvester Goodrich, and 
 three settlers named Hewitt. Joshua Chamberlain 
 came there four or five years later and bought the land 
 where the village of Monterey stands, of a man by the 
 name of De Witt. 
 
 " The northeast part of the Town of Orange known 
 by the appellation of Sugar Hill, did not receive its name 
 from any distinguished elevation or large hill, but from 
 the following circumstance. Some of the men and 
 boys from the older settlements used to come to this 
 place to make sugar in the spring of the year, while it 
 was yet a wilderness. They had traversed the woods 
 in quest of deer, and taken notice of the fine groves of 
 maple in this locality, and as there were no settlers on 
 the land, and nobody in their way, they had an excel- 
 lent chance for making sugar ; and as they had to give 
 the place some name, they called it Sugar Hill. The 
 settlement began about the year 1819 or 1820. Lewis 
 Nichols, William Webb, Thomas Horton, Abraham 
 
 * Communicated by Dr. Silas B. Hibbard, of Sugar Hill. 
 
202 
 
 Allen, John Allen, Ebenezer Beach, Mr. Eveleth, Sey- 
 mour Lockwood, and two families of Comptons, were 
 among the first settlers. Dr. Hibbard arrived in 1821, 
 and Abraham Lybolt, Esq., came about the same time. 
 '^ After the commencement of the settlement the 
 land was very soon taken up by actual settlers. The 
 fertility of the soil, its proximity to the head of Seneca 
 Lake, their anticipated place of market, the easy man- 
 ner of obtaining the land from the Land Office at Bath, 
 their confidence in the validity of the title, and perhaps 
 the novelty of the name, might all have contributed to 
 the speedy settlement of the place." 
 
 CAMPBELL.* 
 
 The first permanent settlers of that part of the old 
 Town of Bath which is now the Town of Campbell, 
 were Joseph Stevens, Robert Campbell, Solomon Camp- 
 bell, and Archa Campbell. In addition to these, the 
 remaining inhabitants of the Town in the year 1800, 
 and about that time, were, Elias Williams, blacksmith. 
 Samuel Calkins, farmer, Abram Thomas and Isaac 
 Thomas, hunters, James Pearsall, farmer, David Mc- 
 Nutt, Joseph Woolcott, and Sailor. 
 
 AVOCA. 
 
 AvocA was known in the early part of Col. William- 
 son's time as " Buchanan's," or the Eight- Mile-Tree, 
 The name of the first settler, as the title of the settle- 
 ment indicates, was Buchanan. He was established at 
 
 * Communicated by Mr. Samuel Cook, of Campbell. 
 
203 
 
 that point by the agent and kept " accommodations " 
 for travellers. A correspondent has returned the 
 names of the oldest residents as follows : James Mc- 
 Whorter, Abraham Towner, Gersham Towner, Daniel 
 Tilton, John Donnahee, Spence Moore, Henry Smith, 
 Allen Smith, who have been residents for about thirty 
 years, and John B. Calkins, Joseph Matthewson, Ger- 
 sham Salmon, James Davis, and James Silsbee, who 
 have been residents about twenty-four years. 
 
 WAYLAND.* 
 
 The first settlement in the town of Wayland was 
 
 made by Zimmerman, in 1806, on the farm now 
 
 occupied by J. Hess, at the depot. The north part of 
 the town was settled by Captain Bowles (1808), Mr. 
 Hicks (about 1810), Thomas Begole (1814), Mr. Bow- 
 en (1808), and John Hume (1808). 
 
 The settlements at Loon Lake in the south part of 
 the town, were made in 1813 by Salmon Brownson. 
 James Brownson, Elisha Brownson, and Isaac Willie, 
 
 The settlers of the central part of the town were 
 Walter Patchin (1814), Dr. Warren Patchin (1815), 
 Dennis Hess (1815), Benjamin Perkins, and Samuel 
 Draper. 
 
 " No road passed through the town except the an- 
 cient one from Bath to Dansville. It was a hard town 
 to settle, and people were generally poor. They passed 
 through many hardships and privations, but now our 
 town is in a prosperous condition. 
 
 * Communicated by Rev. E. Brownson. 
 
204 
 
 " One circumstance connected with the early settle- 
 ment of this town may be somewhat interesting. In 
 1815, there being a scarcity of bread, I went through 
 the towns of Springwater, Livonia, and Sparta, and 
 thence to Dansville, in search of grain for sale, and 
 none was to be had in those towns, nor in Western 
 New York. People had to hull green wheat and rye 
 for food. I found a field of rye on William Perine's 
 farm which was thought nearly fit to cut. I went home 
 and got some neighbors, and with oxen and cart went 
 and cut some of it, threshed it, and took it to the mill 
 and had it mashed, for it was too damp to grind, and 
 thought ourselves the happiest people in the world be- 
 cause we had bread." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 the air castle vanishing the close of col, 
 
 Williamson's agency — his character. 
 
 Nearly sixty years have passed away since the Scot- 
 tish Captain started from the West Branch in pursuit 
 of the air-castle which shone so bravely like a bal- 
 loon to him, looking northward from the Cliffs of North- 
 umberland. The changes which have in the mean 
 time been wrought upon this continent, are without a 
 parallel in the world's annals. Prophecy has been 
 put to silence : conjecture has proved a fool ; for the 
 things which have been accomplished exceed so far any 
 thing promised in the visions of political prophets, or 
 in the ravings of dreamers, that the extravagance of 
 our ancient soothsayers is this day accounted modera- 
 tion. No conquest of Goths, or Tartars can be com- 
 pared for rapidity with that which has been achieved 
 by the woodsmen of America in the overthrow of a 
 forest as broad as an ocean. The little weapon which 
 they wielded against the innumerable host that they 
 went forth to conquer, seemed enchanted, like the 
 swords of those champions of old, who are said to have 
 slain their pagan enemies till rivers were choked, and 
 hollows became hillocks. States have been founded, 
 19 
 
206 
 
 cities built, savage rivers made highways, prairies 
 where the Genius of Barbarism fed his herds of elk 
 and buffalo, made pastures for mules and bullocks, 
 and the lakes which lay afar off in the solitudes, cross- 
 ed only by flocks of wild fowl and the fleets of Indian 
 admirals, have been gladdened by the keels of steam- 
 ships and the watchful flame of light-houses. The ut- 
 most western wilderness which the settler of " The 
 Genesee" beheld over the Lakes, and which he sur- 
 mised might become the dwelling place of desperate 
 pioneers when he had been a century in his grave, is 
 now but midway between Niagara and the outposts of 
 the Republic, and caravans of restless men, pressing 
 beyond these momentary borders, have crossed the Cor- 
 dilleras and built cities on the coast of the Pacific. 
 
 Where now is the gallant Scot and his city? The 
 Genesee country has not lagged in the advances of the 
 Republic. Its population is counted by hundred thou- 
 sands, and its wealth is told by millions ; but the me- 
 mory of the city builder and his schemes has almost 
 perished. While the Northern counties have been 
 making almost unexampled strides to power and opu- 
 lence, the district which wise men of the last century 
 pointed at as the centre of future Western commerce 
 has dragged its slow length along in poverty and ob- 
 scurity, and only by the sheerest labor has reached its 
 present position of independence. The Great West- 
 ern Highway was diverted from the valley of the Con- 
 hoc ton. For a quarter of a century the wealth of the 
 North and West has been rolling in one tremendous 
 torrent to the Mohawk and the Hudson, and by the 
 
207 
 
 side of the channel through which it poured, the demon, 
 our ancient enemy aforementioned, has struck swamps 
 and salt-bogs with his staff, and forthwith cities^ have 
 risen from the mire. The little river which was to 
 have been the drudge of the broad northwest, carrying 
 to the seaboard squadrons of rough arks laden with the 
 grains of Genesee and far-off Michigan, has been hap- 
 pily delivered from that tedious servitude, and ram- 
 bles idly through its valley, turning a few mill-wheels 
 and watering meadows. The fair valley of Bath, in- 
 stead of groaning under the weight of a wilderness of 
 bricks where brokers and cashiers, and other mercan- 
 tile monsters might go about, gratifying their financial 
 instincts to the full, bears at this day only a quiet 
 village and a few ranges of farms, and is girdled by 
 wooded hillsides as wild as in the days when the great 
 Captain of the Six Nations was wont to rest with his 
 warriors under their shadows. 
 
 The memory of the Scot and his city has almost pe- 
 rished. A Senator of the United States, addressing 
 not long since the members of the Legislatures of the 
 State of New York, guests of the city of New York, 
 at the Astor House, spoke of the prediction of a tra- 
 veller in the year 1800, that the village of Bath on the 
 Conhocton river, would in fifty years become the com- 
 mercial metropolis of the State of New York.* The 
 
 * A portion of the speech of Hon. William H. Sewakd, at the 
 Astor House, on the evening of March 22, 1851, is thus reported in 
 the New York Courier and Enquirer : 
 
 " Gentlemen : It seems to me that we can improve this festival 
 occasion by considering how intimate is the relation between the 
 
208 
 
 public heard it with surprise. Many men of the past 
 generation remembered the name of Williamson, but 
 of the present generation feAV, except citizens of West- 
 ern New York, knew of the attempted assassination of 
 the great Atlantic city. 
 
 The story of the downfall of the Backwoods Baron 
 and his city, is a brief one. Ten years Col. Williamson 
 
 City and the State, — ho-w essential each is to the other. There is a 
 town in the interior of the State, far away in what was lately known 
 as the secluded, sequestered part of it, Bath by name. Many of the 
 representatives of the Rural Districts know it well : the members 
 from Steuben can speak for it. Of tliis town I wish to speak. It 
 is a beautiful but quiet one, situated in the delightful valley and on 
 the banks of the Conhocton, a tributary of the Susquehanna. 
 But those who know it well have remarked, that it has a broad and 
 magnincent plan, imperfectly filled out. There are houses on cor- 
 ners, designating streets and avenues, without inhabitants. In short, 
 it was laid out for a great city, but has long since renounced all am- 
 bitious pretensions. You do not know how this has happened. Well 
 if on your return to Albany, you will call on my excellent friend 
 (Mr. Street,) the State Librarian, he will give you a small duodeci- 
 mo volume, published in the year 1800, containing an account of a 
 journey performd by an English gentleman in the short space of 
 six weeks, from the city of N'ew York all the way to l^iagara Falls. 
 That traveller visited Bath, then in the day-spring of its growth, 
 and he recorded of it that it was destined to be the greatest commer- 
 cial metropolis of the State of New York. — The Hudson was only 
 a short arm of the sea. It did not penetrate the interior far enough 
 to take a hold of the trade of the country. Bath was to receive all 
 of it that could be diverted from the channel of the St. Lawrence 
 and the market of Quebec, and send it down through the Conhocton 
 and the Susquehanna to Chesapeake Bay. Had that calculation 
 been realized, Bath might have been a city like Albany, and N'ew 
 York would have been a city over which the President could have 
 had biit little ambition to preside." — (Cheers.) 
 
209 
 
 lived on tlie Conhocton, and exhausted all chemistry 
 in his experiments upon the possibility of turning a 
 castle of rainbows into stone. His expenditures had 
 been enormous, and the British proprietors began to 
 grumble audibly. The towers of glass, which they once 
 imagined they saw glimmering in the wilderness, were 
 scrutinized with profound suspicion. But whatever 
 doubt there might be about the reality of those struc- 
 tures, as to one thing there could be no doubt at all. 
 The greedy wilderness was swallowing the fortune of 
 the Pulteneys with as little gratitude as an anaconda. 
 Hundreds of thousands of pounds had been thrown to 
 that monster, and like the grave it was yet hungry. 
 To satisfy such a remorseless appetite one needed a 
 silver mine, or a credit with the goblins. 
 
 Col. Williamson, however, was not discouraged. 
 Time enough has not been given, he argued. Even a 
 magician would not undertake to perform such a chem- 
 ical exploit in ten years. The brilliant balloon which 
 overhangs the wilderness is not yet securely anchored, 
 it is true, and sways to and fro as if it might possibly 
 rise into the air and sail away. Give but a few years 
 more and every thing will be accomplished. 
 
 But the faith and patience of the proprietors had 
 become utterly exhausted. They had had enough of 
 balloons and ballooning, and were deaf to argument. 
 Like one awaking from enchantment, the Baronet saw 
 the towers of ivory to be but squat pens of logs, and 
 the spires of glass, but long dead trunks of hemlocks, 
 bristling with spikes and blackened with fire. It was 
 determined to change the system which had regulated 
 19* 
 
210 
 
 the estate. Accordingly, in 1802, Col. Williamson 
 descended from the throne, and Robert Troup, Esq., 
 of the city of New York reigned in his stead.* 
 
 * Colonel Williamson held the Pulteney Estates in New York in 
 his own name, and conveyed them to Sir WilHam Pulteney in the 
 month of March, 1801. The act of 1'798, permitting aliens to pm-- 
 chase and hold real estate in this State, (passed, it is said, through 
 the influence of Col. W., who was a member of the Legislature in 
 that year,) expired, by its own limitation, on the 2d of April following. 
 
 Col. Williamson assigned to Sir William Pulieney on the 13th of 
 December, 1800, for the consideration of $300,000, all the bonds and 
 mortgages held by him. 
 
 In the month of March following, he executed to Sir William 
 Pulteney five deeds, which were delivered as escrows to Robert Troup, 
 Esq., to be delivered to Sir W. P., in case certain conditions were 
 performed before the 25th day of October, 1801, which conditions were 
 performed by the execution of a deed from Pulteney to Williamson, 
 dated 23d July, 1801. Of these five deeds, the first, dated 4th March, 
 1801, conveys 50,000 acres of land in the County of Ontario; the se- 
 cond, dated 5th March, 1801, conveys twenty lots in the heart of the 
 city of New York, 1^84 acres of land in the Comity of Otsego, 1299 
 acres in the town of Unadilla, 1400 acres in the County of Herkimer, 
 9000 in the County of Montgomery, 34108 acres in the County of 
 Chenango: the third, dated 2'7th March, 1801, conveys 'TOOO acres of 
 land in the County of Chenango; the fourth, dated 31st March, 1801, 
 conveys 5000 acres of land in the Gerundigut townsliip, and 600 
 acres in the town of Galena, in Cayuga, and all lands in the State of 
 New York, held by the said Williamson : the fifth is an assignment 
 of all the personal property, notes, bonds, bills, and securities of every 
 description, held by tlie said Williamson. Tlie consideration express- 
 ed in each, is one dollar, and all lands sold, or contracted to be sold 
 out of the tracts conveyed, are reserved. 
 
 By the instrument executed on the 23d day of July, 1801, Sir Wil- 
 liam Pulteney, in cansideration of the execution of tbe said five es- 
 crows, and of the sum of twenty shillings, agreed — first, to accq")t 
 and pay nine setts of bills of exchange drawn by Williamson on tlie 
 24th March, 1801, for tlic srm of £5,000 sterhng, at two, three and 
 
211 
 
 Col. Williamson, after the termination of his agen- 
 cy, returned to England. He afterwards made occa- 
 sional visits to America. He died in the year 1807, 
 (at sea, it is said,) of the yellow fever, while on a mis- 
 sion from the British Government to the Havana. 
 
 He was a man of spirit, energy and ability. Pre- 
 possessing in person, free and frank in manner, gene- 
 rous and friendly in disposition, he is remembered to 
 this day as a " fine fellow" by the farmers who were 
 once young pioneers, and opened his roads and hewed 
 his forests. A keen follower of sports, a lover of the 
 horse, the rifle and the hound, he was accounted a man 
 by the rudest foresters. High-bred, intelligent, of 
 engaging address, and readily adapting himself to the 
 circumstances of all men, he was equally welcome to 
 the cabin of the woodsman or the table of the Peer : 
 and whether discussing a horse-race with Canisteo, 
 a school project with Prattsburgh, or the philosophy of 
 over-shot wheels with Bartle's Hollow, he was entirely 
 at home, and pronounced opinions which were listened 
 to with respect. His hale, prompt, manly greeting 
 
 four months after sight : 2d, to indemnify Williamson against the ef- 
 fects of bonds and mortgages, to the amount of about $10,000 : 3d, 
 to pay Col. W. in tliree years after the 1st April, 1801, £20,000 ster- 
 ling, and the interest on that sum at five per cent, at the end of each 
 year, till all Tvas paid, as a compensation for his services in managing 
 the concerns of the Genesee Association, and also £15,000 to pay 
 debts contracted by him by reason of his management of the said con- 
 -^ cems : and finally, all claims and demands against Col. W. arising 
 before the 1st April, 1801, are relinquished and discharged. 
 
 These facts appear from records in tlie ofiice of Secretary of State. 
 copies of -which in the possession of Robert Campbell, Esq., of Bath, 
 the Editor was permitted to examine. 
 
212 
 
 •won for him the good -will of the settler, and gave him 
 influence at the occasional assemblies of the citizens, 
 A crowd of men, for example, waiting in the meadows 
 behind the Land Office for the beginning of a horse- 
 race, became impatient, and at last Canisteo began to 
 kill time by fighting. The Colonel, galloping over 
 from the village, had but to exclaim, in his clear, 
 cheerful "way, as he rode around the mob, " What, 
 boys, have you begun the fun already 1 Don't be in 
 such haste," and -wrathful Canisteo became pacified. 
 
 He had a gallant and impetuous way of doing what 
 was to be done. Where he was, everything was kept 
 stirring. The ordinary routine of a land agent's life 
 had no charms for him. To sit in a drowsy office the 
 live-long day, among quills, and maps, and ledgers, 
 hearing complaints of failing crops, sickness, and hard 
 times, pestered with petitions for the making of new 
 roads and the mending of broken bridges, was unen- 
 durable. He must ride through the woods, talk with 
 the settlers, awaken the aliens, show his lands to 
 strangers, entertain gentlemen from abroad. By the 
 pious and substantial settlers from the east, of whom 
 there were many in the county, his tastes and prac- 
 tices were sternly condemned, but even these, while 
 they were offended at his transgressions, and felt sure 
 that no good would come of a state founded by such a 
 Romulus, acknowledged the spirit and vigor of the 
 man, and were willing to ascribe his failings partially 
 to a military and European education. 
 
 He was dark of feature, tall, slender, and erect of 
 figure. His habits were active, and he pleased the 
 
. 213 
 
 foresters by vaulting liglitly to his saddle, and scouring 
 the roads at full gallop. 
 
 Gen. McClure says, " Col. Williamson was an ex- 
 cellent, high-minded, honorable man, generous, hu- 
 mane, obliging and courteous to all, whether rich or 
 poor. In truth and in fact he was a gentleman in 
 every sense of the word. He was well qualified for 
 the duties conferred upon him as agent of such an im- 
 mense estate, and for the settlement and growth of a 
 new country, so long as Sir William Pulteney would 
 furnish the means to improve it." 
 
 Col. Williamson's objects and motives in conducting 
 the affairs of the estate, were not merely those of a 
 speculator. His pride and spirit were aroused. In 
 invading the wilderness, in hewing, burning, bridging, 
 turning and overturning, till the stubborn powers of 
 the forest were conquered, broken on the wheel, and 
 hanged up in terrorem, like the rebellious in ancient 
 warfare — in these he found excitement. To stand in 
 the midst of the mountains, and hear the crashing of 
 trees, the ringing of axes, and the rattling of saw- 
 mills — to sec wild streams made tame, to see the con- 
 tinuous line of emigrant barges moving up the lower 
 river, and to feel himself the centre of the movement, 
 would brighten the wits of a dull man, much more in- 
 vigorate one so wakeful as Col. Williamson. In his 
 fine, dashing way, he would carry the wilderness by 
 storm. Down with the woods ; down with the hills ; 
 build bridges ; build barns ; build saw-mills, and shiver, 
 the forest into slabs and shingles — these were his 
 orders, and they express the spirit of his administra- 
 
214 
 
 tion. In this swashing onslaught his enthusiasm wag 
 fired. Besides, the money which he controlled, and 
 the power which he wielded, made him a great mai\ in 
 the land. He was Baron of the Backwoods — Warden 
 of the Wilderness — Hemlock Prince — King of Saw- 
 mills. There was not a greater than he in all the land 
 of the west. When, therefore, he found himself at the 
 head of a little state which might sometime become 
 great, the Napoleon of a war against the woods, it is 
 not wonderful that in the excitement of building Baby- 
 Ions, or in the exultation of an Austerlitz among the 
 pines, he should be animated with the thoughts and 
 emotions which principals are not accustomed to ex- 
 pect in their agents. 
 
 All these dashing operations were fine sport to the 
 men who rode on the whirlwind, but to the magician 
 over the water, who was expected not only to raise the 
 wind, but to keep it whirling, the fun was rather ex- 
 hausting. To support a missionary of civilization in 
 the American backwoods, purely out of philanthropy, 
 or to keep amateur city-builders in funds, merely that 
 gentlemen might enjoy themselves, were acts of benevo- 
 lence, not, of course, to be expected from the British 
 Baronet. When, therefore. Sir William Pulteney be- 
 came alarmed at the encroachments upon his fortune, 
 and abruptly stopped the operations of his viceroy, it 
 would be difficult to say what fault could be reasonably 
 found with him for this determination. Considering 
 the remoteness of his possessions, their tenure under 
 the supposed uncertain laws of a republic, and the 
 great uncertainty of the enterprise attempted, he did 
 
 \ 
 
215 
 
 no more than a man of ordinary prudence would have 
 done, in his situation, in determining upon a change or 
 a modification of policy, and the exercise of greater 
 <jaution in his expenditures. 
 
 Time has proved that the reasons and expectations 
 which induced Col. Williamson to undertake his great 
 enterprize were ill-founded ; and upon the strength of 
 these acknowledged errors, he is often sweepingly con- 
 demned as a visionary — a heedless, wasteful man, en- 
 gaged in business of which he was ignorant, and for 
 .which he had little capacity. Against such broad and 
 unqualified condemnation we must protest. He found- 
 ed his schemes upon the expectation that the tract 
 known as the Genesee country would some time be- 
 come a region of vast wealth, and that through it the 
 products of an indefinite Western country would pass 
 to the Atlantic coast. Has time branded him a 
 dreamer for these things'? His error then, was, in 
 mistaking the channel through which Genesee and 
 the West would go to the sea-board. But, considering 
 the modes of transit known to the world at that time, 
 and the shape and position of the navigable waters 
 which drained the Genesee, is any one prepared to 
 say that there was a flagrant absurdity in pointing 
 out the Valley of the Chemung as the destined outlet 
 of the undefined Northern country] Most men of 
 sense and experience, at the close of the last century, 
 entertained this opinion. A prophet, it is true, might 
 have unveiled the future to the Scottish chief, and 
 shown him canals and railroads ; but, except the wig- 
 • warn of the Indian doctor, where the destinies were 
 
216 
 
 f|uestioned by rattling porcupine-quills, and shaking 
 the horns of a buffalo -bull, there was no oracle for the 
 Western Cadmus to consult. To abuse Col. William- 
 son and his coadjutors, for want of common foresight, 
 is as unreasonable as it will be for newspapers, sixty 
 years hence, to be astounded at the modern project of 
 connecting the Atlantic and Pacific by railway to San 
 Francisco, when ^' anybody might have seen" that the 
 natural port of the Pacific coast was Nootka Sound, 
 and that the way to get there from New York would 
 be to take the wires by way of Lake Winnipeg and 
 the Saskatchawan river. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 STEUBEN COUNTY SINCE THE PERIOD OF SETTLE- 
 MENT DISASTERS PROGRESS PROSPECTS THE 
 
 CITIZENS AND THE LAND PROPRIETORS. 
 
 The history of that province over which those blame- 
 less shepherds of the people, the supervisors of Steu- 
 ben County, wave their transitory sceptres, has now 
 been traced with as much accuracy as the sources of 
 information permitted, from the earliest ages to the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century. It has appeared 
 bow, in the most distant times of which record can be 
 borne, that region was covered with the waters of the 
 sea ; drifting icebergs then, perchance, scratched the 
 tops of the hills, and our home was a pasture where 
 marine herdsmen drove their ungainly cattle — whales, 
 sea-lions, and mighty serpents of the ocean, and the 
 shark and the sword-fish prowled along the trails after- 
 wards trodden by the Indian and the Tory. It has 
 furthermore appeared how the land, being at length 
 delivered from these monsters, rose above the waters, 
 received sunlight and showers, was covered with for- 
 ests, became a hiding-place of wild beasts and barba- 
 rians, and lay in silence through many centuries, being 
 pleased with the murmur of its forests and the rushing 
 20 
 
218 
 
 sound of its rivers ; how at length the clamors of a 
 Btrange warfare were heard at a distance, in the val- 
 leys of the lower streams, and waxed louder and 
 nearer by degrees, until barbarism, " clutching its 
 curiously wrought tomahawk," and gathering its fan- 
 tastic robe about its form, swept by in full retreat, 
 followed by a horde of light-haired men, who assailed 
 the wilderness with axes, scathed it with fire, and tore 
 it wiih iron harrows. It has appeared how, afterwards, 
 a republican baron, coming from the East, built him- 
 self a castle out of the trunks of trees, in a broad, 
 round valley, begirt with pine and hemlock hillsides, 
 and dwelt there in the depths of the forest in true fru- 
 gal style, exchanging detiant missives with potentates 
 who claimed fealty, and entertaining all manner of 
 errant gentry, from French dukes to Newmarket 
 jockeys, with much better grace, in faith, than the 
 Front de Bceufs of the ancient English backwoods, 
 while, to complete the similitude, Robin Hood and his 
 lusty foresters reappeared on the Canisteo Flats, and 
 there renewed the merriments of Sherwood Forest.* 
 
 With the close of this baronial period the present 
 chronicle will conclude. Our heroic ages there ab- 
 ruptly ended, and modern time set in with a vengeance. 
 
 * Curiously enough, we are able to perfect the t-imilitude, by the 
 addition of a Friar Tuck. The first Presbyterian clergyman who 
 ministered to the spiritual wants of the Cauis'eo piont-ers, is de- 
 scribed as "a clever, humfrsome man, who could drink grog and 
 tlirow the maul with the best." He was a man of enormous mus- 
 cular streng'h. Preaching once in early tlays in a warehouse in An- 
 gelica, he became so much engaged in his subject that he dashed a 
 store-desk in pieces with his fist 
 
219 
 
 The history of the county, after that epoch, would be 
 but a record of the incidents which make up the daily 
 life of an inland, obscure, almost inaccessible region, 
 as the movements of emigrants, the establishment of 
 stage routes, the sessions of supervisors, the burning 
 of log-heaps, the building of saw-mills, the excitements 
 of courts, trainings and elections — all passing by so 
 quietly that, but for the clouds of smoke that overhung 
 the hills on still, dry days of autumn, or the occasional 
 gusts of martial music from rustic battalions, one 
 standing without would hardly know that any living 
 thing was stirring within the hemlock highlands. A 
 few startling interruptions, as the war of 1812 and tho 
 Douglas affair, disturbed the routine of daily life, but 
 the people kept steadily at work from year to year, 
 had little intercourse with the world beyond their owa 
 boundaries except through the medium of newspapers, 
 had their frolics without proclamation to all North 
 America and the adjacent islands, opened great and 
 unsightly gaps in the forest, steered thousands of rafts 
 through the cataracts of the Susquehanna, and, devoting 
 themselves mainly to the task of transforming the wil- 
 derness into meadows and plow-land, did few memora- 
 ble things which are discoverable by the chronicler. 
 
 Let us barely glance at the general progress of the 
 county, from the close of Col. Williamson's agency to 
 the present time. At the time of the agent's depar- 
 ture the county had about two thousand inhabitants. 
 The work of subduing the forest had been but begun, 
 but the beginning had been made vigorously and with 
 good hope. A lumber-trade had been opened with the 
 
220 
 
 ports of the lower Susquehanna and the Chesapeake. 
 Northern men had begun to bring grain in consider- 
 able quantities to Bath for transportation to the mar- 
 kets. The location on the Conhocton was yet con- 
 sidered highly advantageous. 
 
 The rupture between the proprietors and the agent, 
 though sensibly felt at the scene of his prominent 
 operations, was not regarded as hopelessly disastrous 
 to the prospects of the county. The development of 
 the agent's plan was far from complete, and the ex- 
 periments which he had made were insufficient to de- 
 termine whether his enterprises were wisely or un- 
 wisely conceived. The fate of " this great Babylon 
 which I am going to build" was yet uncertain, and it 
 was hoped that, although for the present the progress 
 of the town towards an honorable position among the 
 cities of the land might be retarded, yet that it would 
 ultimately rise from embarrassment and fulfil its des- 
 tiny. The air-castle, though rather dingy and dilapi- 
 dated, was nevertheless a very fine affair, and was not 
 without power to attract people from afar. After the 
 year 1800, many men who might have bought lands 
 near Geneva, Canandaigua and Rochester, for a tri- 
 fling price, were induced, by the superior advantages 
 for access to a market, then offered by the valleys of 
 Steuben, to establish themselves among our own un- 
 gracious hills. Many a farmer now residing in this 
 county has the satisfaction of complaining, that had it 
 not been for Williamson's balloons, himself or his 
 father might have had the site of a city for their corn- 
 fields, or perchance would have pastured their flocks 
 
221 
 
 on the ground now occupied by some stirring village of 
 Genesee, Ontario, or Onondaga. 
 
 Bat the cold water suddenly showered on the deli- 
 cate phantoms that overhung the forest — soon scattered 
 them. The abrupt drying up of the Pulteney Pacta- 
 lus, that river of gold which had hitherto refreshed the 
 thirsty wilderness, caused the plant which had been 
 entrusted to the Pine Plains, to grow up scrubbily. 
 A very ignominious metropolis, for many years, was 
 the shire- town of the county. It was a quarter of a 
 century or more before it began to free itself from its 
 deformities, and to cast off its beggarly apparel for 
 comfortable garments, and to pick up Grecian^ Gothio 
 and Italian finery to bedeck itself withal. Indeed, 
 immediately after the departure of Baron Williamson 
 it was threatened with destruction in a very strange 
 manner. The clearings in its vicinity were abandon- 
 ed, and a growth of oak of amazing stoutness and ac- 
 tivity sprung up. The farmers were fairly over- 
 powered, as if by tribes of wild men, and driven from 
 their fields. Whole farms were overrun by these in- 
 vaders. They even pushed their conquests to the 
 edge of the village, and stood insultingly at the heads 
 of the little streets, like a horde of marauders, des- 
 cending from the hills and pillaging the suburbs of 
 some seedy old city, which has barely enough of its 
 ancient vigor to keep the brigands outside of the 
 gates. The wild beasts re-took possession of the land. 
 Between St. Patrick's Square and Gallows Hill was 
 good hunting. The owl and the wolf clamored nightly 
 for re-annexation. The bear thrusting his nose through 
 20* 
 
222 
 
 the garden pickets, snuffed the odors of the kitchens. 
 In 1811, the whole space hetween the village and the 
 pine-forest, which encircled it at the distance of about 
 half a mile, was overgrown with stout oak stalks, from 
 ten to fifteen feet high. A few huts, occupied by 
 negroes, were scattered among the bushes half smo- 
 thered, and it was only by sleepless care on the part 
 of the citizens that the sprouts were kept down in the 
 streets and market-place, and that the whole metropo- 
 lis, like a babe in the woods, was not buried in the 
 leaves, so deep that the robins couldn't find it. It 
 was told then, as a great thing, that a farmer on 
 one of the Marengo farms had raised twenty acres of 
 wheat. To such littleness had the standard of great- 
 ness shrunken in the abandoned Barony. 
 
 Not only the central village but the whole county 
 felt the shock at the dethronement of Col. Williamson. 
 He had been the life of the land, and " times were dead 
 enough when he left," say the old settlers. No more 
 the Hudson, the Potomac and the Delaware, were 
 startled by proclamations of races in the wilderness : 
 no more did rumors of bull-fights and the uproar of 
 lioriis disturb the goodly : no more did gallant retinues 
 of riders gallop through the forest, while servants fol- 
 lowed with luncheons and baskets of wine. Newspaper 
 paragraphs no longer told the citizens of the East of 
 great things done in Steuben, and pamphlets no longer 
 enlightened London and Edinburgh concerning the ca- 
 pabilities of the Conbocton river. 
 
 The county was thenceforward expected to work its 
 own way out of the woods ; to hew its own road to inde- 
 
223 
 
 pendence and prosperity ; to scuflSe unhelped with 
 whatever enemies should seek to trample it to the 
 earth. After years of hard, and often of discouraging 
 labour, we have gained the upper hand of the enemy. 
 Our county, for so long a time proverbially a '* hard 
 county" — a kind of rough-handed, two-fisted, ill-fed 
 county, an offence in the eyes of Eastern elegance and 
 Northern wealth, is rising fast not only to respectabi- 
 lity but to consequence, like some great backwoods 
 lout, who, from a youth of log-rolling and shingle-shav- 
 ing, passes to a manhood of judicial or senatorial dig- 
 nity. 
 
 The first forty years of our county's existence were 
 years of iron labor. The settlers were poor men, and 
 the discouragements and difficulties which they met with 
 will with difficulty be appreciated by coming genera- 
 tions, who shall inherit vallies long tilled and bills sub- 
 dued by years of thorough culture. One long familiar 
 with the farmers of the county says : " But few com- 
 paratively of the settlers ever succeeded in paying up 
 their contracts and getting deeds for their land. The 
 high price of the land and the constantly accumulating 
 interest on their contracts, was more than they could 
 bear. They were compelled to abandon to others their 
 half-cleared ftirms, disheartened and weary. Most of 
 the contracts given by the agents of the Pultenej^s for 
 the sale of land were assigned from one to another 
 several times, before the whole amount of the principal 
 and interest due on them was paid." 
 
 For the last twenty years we have occupied the van- 
 tage ground, and have been engaged in a work not only 
 
224 
 
 of subjugation but of cultivation. Hard and discourag- 
 ing work was done during this period, and quite enough 
 of the same remains to be done among our stubborn 
 hills ; but the increasing independence of the early- 
 settled districts and the additional facilities for com- 
 munication with the outer world, placed us upon the 
 whole on the vantage ground, and the work of subju- 
 gation went on with greater rapidity and ardor than at 
 any time before. Railroads began to encampass us ; 
 a steamboat appeared on the Crooked Lake ; the old 
 farming districts began 1o grow smooth and sightly; 
 new wildernesses were invaded ; cattle and sheep by 
 myriads fed in the pastures ; villages were built, and 
 old dingy towns brightened up and renewed their youth. 
 Various schemes of progress were agitated. Canals 
 and railroads were discussed. At length the rumbling 
 of cars was heard on Shawangunk, then on the Susque- 
 hanna, then on the Chemung, — and the locomotive, ten 
 hours from the Hudson, rushed over our glad frontiers 
 and discharged the Atlantic mails at the ancient monu- 
 mental post of the Senecas. Saw-mills arose in every 
 pine forest, and in the spring, when the snow on the 
 hills melted and the ice in the rivers went down to be 
 piled in long battlements on the meadows below, 
 hundreds of lumbermen came out of the woods, steered 
 their rafts of boards, timber and enormous spars down 
 the torrents to the Chesapeake ; riding over huge dams 
 and rocky rapids, sometimes prosperously, and some- 
 times shattering their fleets and suffering shipwreck 
 and drowning, and all marine disasters which await 
 mariners who sail in whaleships and frigates. 
 
225 
 
 " Fifteen years ago," says the Citizen, in his Dc- 
 'iBcriptive and Historical Sketch, (speaking, in imagina- 
 tion, at the beginning of this century,) '* standing on 
 an exceedingly high mountain, we beheld unbroken 
 forests lying west of the Chenango as far as the rain- 
 hoyfs of Niagara, and covering the ridges and long 
 slopes of the Alleganies. Standing now on that same 
 promontory, behold a change. Broad swathes are 
 opened in that meadow of timber. Smoke rises from 
 the little chimnies of three thousand cabins, scattered 
 among the choice valleys and by the pleasant river 
 sides of the wilderness west of Seneca Lake. The 
 noise of a myriad of axes is heard this side of the Mo- 
 hawk, like the tapping of a host of woodpeckers in a 
 grove : flotillas are riding upon the rivers, a long and 
 scattered caravan is filing past old F'ort Stanwix, while 
 New Englanders are afloat in the canoes of Unadilla, 
 and stout pioneers are urging upwards the barges of 
 Susquehanna. At evening the great forest is dotted 
 with lights. Torches glimmer by the cabins. Trees 
 are burning where fire runs wild through the woods, so 
 that in the mid watch, when the torch-lights by the 
 cabins are quenched, you may see afar off a zig-zag 
 serpent of flame coiling around some mountain knob or 
 "wandering by the lake shore, or pursuing its shining 
 trail through plains and marshes. Two sounds disturb 
 the silence of the night — the dull plunging of Niagara 
 in the West, and the distant uproar of Napoleon's 
 cannon in the East. But what are all those thunders 
 that rock the foundation of the other continent, and 
 those tumults of kings and cannon, of horsemen and 
 
226 
 
 musketeers which the nations hear with alarm, com- 
 pared with that unnoticed war which is waged in the 
 forest below you !'' 
 
 Being unfortunately ignorant of the position of this 
 convenient mountain (which has been strangely over- 
 looked by the State Geologist), it will be impossible to 
 invite the republicans for whom these chronicles are 
 written to look off from the same at the present day. 
 A view from some such promontory or from a balloon 
 would enable them to see to advantage the present con- 
 dition of our county. One looking thus from above 
 would behold the upland forests slashed this way and 
 that with the most lawless violence, and the principal 
 valleys freed from their ancient vegetation except where 
 long and crooked lanes of elm, sycamore, and willow 
 mark the channels of the streams, or where groves of 
 oak stand in the midst of the fields, or here and there 
 a cluster of maples or a solitary pine alone remain of 
 many brethren. 
 
 Nevertheless immense tracts of land are yet covered 
 with the forest. Stripes of timber as broad as the 
 height of the hills, almost unbroken for miles, line the 
 most cultivated valleys. Many broad districts are al- 
 most as wild as at the first. Within a mile of the vil- 
 lages and clean meadows of the river- valleys, one finds 
 yet the rude *' settlement," and on the further side of 
 half the hills in the County are hollows, which in the 
 provincial pronounciation of hollers are so suggestive 
 of hemlocks, burnt stumps, log cabins, and of what is 
 known in despair at the poverty of language as " the 
 jumping-off place." There are comparatively few 
 
227 
 
 commanding heights from which one does not seem to 
 see more forest than farmed land, and there are many 
 places where one looks across to districts dented with 
 ravines and covered with treetops, where the axe has 
 hardly begun its mission. 
 
 Forty years ago almost the entire strength of the 
 county was in the valleys. Great now is the strength 
 of the uplands, and rapidly increasing. The subjuga- 
 tion of these obstinate regions has been a labor indeed, 
 and to the eyes of the wanderer from softer lands they 
 look as unsightly as tlie b^.ttle-field the day after the 
 victory. The black stumps, the rough fences, the is- 
 lands and broad girdles of timber, haggled of outline 
 and bristling with long bare spikes, and the half-burnt 
 trunks of trees, are indeed uncomely. Our hill-coun- 
 try, however, is calculated from its structure to attain 
 generally a good, and often a high degree of beauty, 
 when cultivation has removed its primitive roughness. 
 A vision of rolling farms divided by wooded gulfs or 
 ravines ; of smooth knobs dotted with portly cattle ; of 
 clean slopes covered with grain-fields and orchards — 
 the whole forming a landscape unsurpassed in rural 
 beauty by ancient and ronowned counties of the east 
 and north, is a dream of the future by no means too 
 extravagant to be indulged in. 
 
 Sixty thousand souls now live within the boundaries 
 of the county. Twenty villages and upwards are 
 scattered through the towns, some of them holding pre- 
 tensions to beauty and importance. The great rail- 
 way line between the city of New York and the West- 
 ern States passes up the valleys of the Chemung and 
 
228 
 
 Canisteo, which, at the village of Corning, is joined 
 bjr two important tributaries — one extending to the 
 coal mountain of Pennsylvania where sixty years ago 
 Patterson, the hunter, first unearthed the "black dia- 
 mond " with his tomahawk — the other passing north- 
 ward through the valley of the Conhocton to the Ge- 
 nesee and Buffalo. Another tributary to the great 
 trunk joins it at Hornellsville on the Canisteo, which 
 also terminates at Buffalo, crossing the Genesee River 
 at Portage Falls, The Canandaigua and Jefferson 
 railroad crosses one corner of the county. The Che- 
 mung Canal thrusts itself within the county line as far 
 as Corning, and the Crooked Lake gives direct com- 
 munication with the Erie Canal. 
 
 The dreams of our ancients have not become reali- 
 ties, but wonders, of which they did not dream, are 
 amongst us. Iron monsters more marvellous than any 
 that were seen by geologists in the marine herds which 
 of old fed on our sunken meadows, rush through the 
 valleys with wild and discordant shrieks. The hoot of 
 the engine, and the roar of its chariot, employ the 
 echoes of the bluffs. Steamers, and heavy-laden barges 
 plow the lakes where once wallowed the Durham boat 
 of the pioneer, or skimmed the canoe of the red fisher- 
 man. 
 
 Let the reflecting republican, before turning from 
 the perusal of these records to his saw-mill or meadow, 
 consider a few of the comforts which the citizens of the 
 county enjoys to-day, which were unknown to the back- 
 woodsman of forty or fifty years ago. 
 
 Then the solitary settler shared his clearing with 
 
229 
 
 the populace of the forest. Those hairy Six Nations, 
 the bears, the wolves, the panthers, the foxes, the cata- 
 mounts and the weasels, hovered around his narrow 
 frontiers to slay and devour. His two or three swine 
 or sorry sheep were in nightly peril of the scenes of 
 Wyoming. Deer bounded before him in his walk 
 through the woods. The fires of Indian lodges glim- 
 mered among the trees at night. — Now his flocks and 
 herds range v/ithout fear over great pastures. Wag- 
 gons roll before his dwelling on the roads which were 
 once lonely trails. Lights glimmer at night on all 
 sides from farm-house windows. He hears the bells 
 in the distant village-steeples. 
 
 Then he was beyond the borders of the Far West. 
 Behind him were the Atlantic cities, — before him were 
 tremendous wilds which he heard were traversed by 
 the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Missouri, rumored to be 
 enormous rivers, on the banks of which were brakes 
 and plains, possessed by buffaloes, wild horsemen and 
 bears. When he went East, people looked at him as 
 we now look at the Mormon from Salt Lake, or the 
 fur trader from Winnipeg. — Now he is in the far East. 
 As one standing on the shadow of a cloud sees it glid- 
 ing under his feet, and presently beholds it miles away 
 on the hill- side, so has the pioneer of Steuben seen the 
 " Far West " gliding from beneath his feet, and now 
 he beholds it moving up the slope of the Cordilleras, 
 He reads of boilers bursting at the Falls of St. An- 
 thony, of steamers dashing together at the mouth of 
 the Arkansas, of flues collapsing under the Council 
 
 Bluff's. 
 
 21 
 
230 
 
 Then, in his lonely clearing, he guessed the hour of 
 the day by the sunshine on his cabin floor ; he foretold 
 snows, winds and droughts, by the shape of the clouds, 
 by the vapors at sunset, by the Moon-man's expres- 
 sion of countenance. — Now the clocks of Connecticut 
 are ticking in the forlornest hollow : iron pointers, on 
 many steeples, publicly expose all irregularities of that 
 luminary which governs times and seasons, and alma- 
 nacs calculated "expressly for the meridian of Western 
 New York," tell him exactly when to expect freshets, 
 and when to look out for hail-storms. 
 
 Then, the trader, bestriding his horse, jogged oif to 
 the sea-port through the dark and dismal roads of the 
 forest, dependent upon the whims of despotic tavern- 
 keepers and the tender mercies of " cross widows"* 
 by the way. His yearly assortment of goods was 
 dragged in wagons from the Hudson. Now, whirling 
 to the city in a night, he may send up by railway those 
 gorgeous fabrics which have superseded the homely 
 merchandize of former times ; or the canal boat, laden 
 with his ponderous crates and hogsheads, is tugged 
 through the Northern ditches to the Crooked Lake, 
 where a steamer politely offers his wheel-house, and 
 escorts the fair wanderer into the heart of the hills. 
 
 Then, the lumbermen saw tho creeks come leaping 
 down the ravines like hearty young mountaineers, 
 pines stood in the glens like stupid giants, unconscious 
 that they contained cubic-feet and cullings, and the 
 hemlocks made dark the hill-sides and hollows with 
 
 * Vide McCIure, Norr. 
 
231 
 
 'their worthless branches. Now, the pines are so 
 nearly extirpated that their uncouth cousins, the hem- 
 locks, are thought worthy of the saw. The creeks 
 'iiave been taught useful knowledge and drive gang- 
 mills, just as in Pagan islands the missionaries make 
 good boys of the little cannibals, and set them at work 
 churning and grinding coffee. 
 
 Then, the flaxen-haired urchin tumbled in the leaves 
 with bear-cubs and racoons ; he blackened his face 
 among the half-burnt logs ; he was lost to all sense of 
 syntax, but perhaps studied arithmetic at winter in 
 the little log-school-house, and learned something 
 about the Chinese wall and the antipodes. Then, the 
 patriot saw the country going to ruin, without having 
 it in his power to sound the alarm, for there was no 
 county newspaper to trumpet his warnings to '' a prof- 
 ligate and reckless administration." Now, there are 
 school-houses, academies and seminaries — *"' bulwarks 
 of liberty" — bristling at all points with rhetoric and 
 geometry. Three political newspapers ride every week 
 the length and breadth of the county, like chariots 
 armed with scythes. Three editors, fit successors of 
 the Shiversculls and Brighthatchets of old, brandish 
 the political scalping knife, and at times drop their 
 ferocious weapons, to touch the lyre of poetry or the 
 viol of romance, at those brief intervals when the great 
 congressional bass-drum ceases its sullen roar in the 
 Kepublic's capitol. 
 
 Of the things to be attained by the county at a fu- 
 ture day, we will not attempt to prophecy. The chief 
 agricultural eminence now believed to be within our 
 
232 
 
 reach, is in the dairy line. Distinguished graziers in- 
 dulge in dreams of a Buttermilk Age, when the churns 
 of Steuben will be as renowned as the forges of Pitts- 
 burgh, or the looms of Lowell. They publicly assert 
 that while our neighbors of Allegany may presume to 
 make cheese, and our cousins of Ohio may hope to 
 shine in the grease market, it will be presumption in 
 them, or in any other tribes west of the Genesee, to try 
 to rival the butter of Steuben : that the grass abound- 
 ing on our juicy hills possesses a peculiar flavor and 
 a mysterious virtue, and will produce most stupendous 
 and unparalleled butter ; that while there is much 
 grass of the same quality in Chemung, some in Onon- 
 daga, and scanty patches elsewhere, the wretched na- 
 tives of Ohio are utterly destitute of it, as also are all 
 those miserable myriads who extract a substance from 
 the herbage of the prairies, which they insanely style 
 " butter;'^ that, feeding upon this grass, calves have 
 attained an appalling magnitude ; the ox may, by 
 proper encouragement, become gigantic, and the Horn- 
 by steer, with his broad horns and deep flanks, will 
 be looked upon with unspeakable envy by those rattish 
 red bullocks that migrate in such immense hordes, like 
 the ill-favored Huns of old, from Illinois and Indiana 
 to the New York market.* 
 
 To the degree of physical prosperity to be attained 
 by the county hereafter, one will hardly venture to set 
 a limit. Let its citizens, first of all things, have a 
 care that they themselves be men of whom the Re- 
 
 * Speech of a prominent agriculturist at a " Railroad meeting." 
 
233 
 
 public need not be ashamed — God-fearing, law-abid- 
 ing, intelligent, and free men, and they need not doubt 
 that the future will fulfil the promise of the present. 
 Failing in this great thing, it would be better that the 
 land had remained a wilderness. 
 
 There are a few considerations respecting the rela- 
 tions which have heretofore existed, and which have 
 not yet ceased to exist, between the citizens of the 
 county and the original foreign purchasers and their 
 heirs, which may with propriety be here presented. 
 
 It is now about sixty years since the greater part 
 of the county became the property of the London As- 
 sociates. From that time until the present day, an 
 oflBce has been kept at the shire-town of the county, 
 for the sale of lands. The lands have been sold in 
 small parcels, and upon credit, the purchaser taking 
 immediate possession. The most valuable portions of 
 the county have thus been long sold : but considerable 
 tracts of land are yet undisposed of, and actions 
 against shingle splitting, tort-feasors, are yet brought 
 in the name of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland 
 and King of Hanover. 
 
 As was almost unavoidable, from the nature of these 
 relations, there has been no love lost between the citi- 
 zens and the proprietors. During the agency of Col. 
 Williamson there seems to have been a cordial under- 
 standing between the two parties. The original pro- 
 prietors were men of generous and enlightened spirit. 
 Sir William Pulteney was a statesman of high stand- 
 ing. Mr. Colquhoun had also mingled in public af- 
 fairs, and was distinguished as a philanthropist. The 
 21* 
 
234 
 
 administration of the estate in the first years of the 
 settlement was conducted with an evident regard for 
 the prosperity of the settler, and with a liberality and 
 justice on the part of the proprietors which none are 
 more ready to acknowledge than those who dealt with 
 them. It is since the period of the earliest settle- 
 ments that the policy and tone of the alien owners 
 have failed to command the respect of the citizens. 
 
 The relation, and the sole relation, which for forty 
 years and upwards has existed between the proprie- 
 tors and citizens, has been that of sellers and buyers. 
 So long as the former confine their claims to consider- 
 ation to this relation, it cannot be alleged against 
 them that they have transcended the bounds of what 
 is considered reputable amongst men of business. 
 They have required high prices for their lands, it is 
 true, even the very highest prices that could be borne, 
 but to demand high prices for lands or chattels is not 
 considered an offence against the rules of reputable 
 dealing amongst men of business. No one is compel- 
 led to buy. It is true that men have been required to 
 fulfil their agreements with the land-holders, and, ic 
 default thereof, have been made to suffer the legal 
 consequences, but neither against this can one, accord- 
 ing to the settled maxims of common dealing, object. 
 The law gives the right, and it is the practice of men 
 to avail themselves of it. There are many large land 
 proprietorships in the United States. We do not 
 know that the administration of the generality of these 
 is characterized by any greater degree of liberality 
 than is that of the Pulteney and Hornby estates. The 
 
235 
 
 proprietors of the latter have certainly not insisted 
 upon their strict legal rights, but have habitually re- 
 frained from exercising the utmost stringency which 
 the letter of the law wouM permit, and have many 
 times granted indulgence to those in delinquency which 
 they were not bound to grant. Whatever causes of 
 quarrel may have existed between purchasers and 
 agents of the proprietors are not fit subjects of com- 
 ment here ; we speak merely of the general policy of 
 the owners in administering the affairs of the estate, 
 and hold that so long as they are content to confine 
 their claims to consideration to their character as sel- 
 lers of land, it must be admitted that they have con- 
 formed to the rules of common dealing amongst men. 
 But if, beyond this, they should have the effrontery to 
 lay claims to public gratitude for services rendered to 
 the county in its days of toil and privation, or should 
 demand credit for liberality in the administration of 
 the affairs of the estate, of a higher tone than is ge- 
 nerally exercised in this lower world, these pretensions 
 would be simply preposterous. We do not know that 
 any such claims are put forth. The only concern of 
 the proprietors has been to get as much money as it 
 was possible to get, and whether settlers lived or 
 starved has not, so far as human vision can discern, 
 had a straw's weight in their estimation. Many in- 
 stances no doubt there have been of kind consideration 
 on the part of employees of the estate, and some of 
 these gentlemen have merited and obtained the respect 
 of those with whom their business brought them in 
 contact, but the general spirit of the administration of 
 
236 
 
 the successors of the original proprietors, considering 
 it as a matter affecting the interests of a little State, 
 has been mean and narrow. A frank, generous, and 
 considerate bearing of the proprietors, it is perhaps 
 safe to say, would have obviated nearly all of that hos- 
 tility of the people which it is so easy to ascribe whol- 
 ly to democratic cupidity and jealousy. The alien 
 proprietorship deserves no thanks from the public, and 
 probably will never think it advisable to ask for any. 
 It has been a dead, disheartening weight on the 
 county. The undeniable fact that a multitude of 
 hard-working men have miserably failed in their en- 
 deavors to gain themselves homes — have mired in a 
 slough of interest and instalments, leaving the results 
 of their labors for others to profit by, should be of it- 
 self sufficient to shame the absurd pretension of pa- 
 tronage, if it is ever put forth. The young county, 
 full of a rude and indomitable vigor, gained its present 
 position of independence by work and courage, and in 
 spite of the incubus which rested upon it. It has to 
 thank no human patron for its victory. 
 
 And it is well that this is so. It is well that strong 
 arms and stout hearts have achieved the conquest of 
 this wilderness, unaided by patrons, either at home or 
 abroad. Fight makes might. The discipline of a half 
 a century of poverty and tedious labor has made this 
 people stronger of heart and hand than they would 
 have been if the hemlocks had snapped like icicles, or 
 the hills had proved softer than old meadow lands, or 
 the apparitions of foreign Peers had hovered in the air, 
 
237 
 
 smiling encouragement to indigent squatters, and shak^ 
 ing showers of silver from the clouds. 
 
 There are certain other considerations arising from 
 the relations which have so long existed between the 
 citizens of the county and the foreign proprietors which 
 may be here presented. No state of things can be im- 
 agined more offensive to democratic prejudices than 
 that created by the relations existing between the peo- 
 ple of this county and the heirs of Pulteney. Few 
 stronger temptations to disregard the rights of pro- 
 perty and to advocate something akin to that Agrarian- 
 ism so much dreaded in republican communities by 
 those distrustful of popular rule, are often presented to 
 a populace, than such as arise from the tenure by 
 foreign Lords of immense tracts of land in a country 
 heartily hostile to everything savoring of aristocracy* 
 No lawlessness would naturally be more readily ex- 
 cused by the popular sense than that which repudi- 
 ated the European claims of title, and formed illegal 
 combinations to harrass the proprietors, and to set at 
 nought the edicts of lawgivers, and the process of 
 courts in their favor. What can be imagined more 
 annoying to democratic feeling than to see, as the ora- 
 tors sometimes tell us, the money of republicans, earned 
 by desperate labor, rolling in incessant streams to the 
 treasuries of British Lords — the sufferers tliereby be- 
 lieving, at the same time, that these rivulets of coin 
 are kept up by some kind of jugglery. What group 
 would so well serve the purposes of the orator and the 
 demagogue, as that of poor, brave and free-born form- 
 ers standing in the posture of serfs to foreign Nebu- 
 
238 
 
 chadnezzars ? What better pictures to adorn the 
 popular harangue, or the County's Book of Martyrs, 
 sometimes opened before s^^mpathising juries, than 
 those of foreign Nebuchadnezzars riding over the necks 
 of prostrate democrats ; of foreign Nebuchadnezzar's 
 plying the rack, the boot and the thumbscrew to the 
 "unterrified;" of foreign Nebuchadnezzars hunting 
 shingle-splitters -with bloodhounds and janizaries, 
 throwing farmers into fiery furnaces and dens of lions, 
 tind making a " St. Bartholemew's" among the squat- 
 ters 1 
 
 That under these circumstances defrctive foreign 
 titles should have been amended by the Legislature of 
 the State, and the rights of the proprietors carefully 
 regarded and repeatedly asserted ; that the tender mer- 
 cies of the commonwealth should have reached such a 
 climax of tenderness as to relieve the proprietors from 
 the payment of taxes on their wild lands and to rebuke 
 as unrighteous and impertinent the demands of the 
 settlers that these indigent aliens should share in the 
 maintenance of the roads by which they profited, and 
 of the courts which they crowded with their suits ; that 
 for sixty years their office should have stood unmo- 
 lested and unthreatened in the midst of a populace 
 doubtful of the legality of their claims and aggrieved 
 by their perseverance in a polic}^ which is popularly 
 considered unjust and disreputable ; that their agents 
 have never been flagrantly insulted, nor their foresters 
 thrown into mill-ponds ; that the process of the courts 
 has seldom been illegally impeded and never effectual- 
 ly resisted, and that juries have never refused to ren- 
 
239 
 
 der for the proprietors verdicts required by the law 
 and the facts ; that by a community abundantly intel- 
 ligent to form unlawful combinations which would se- 
 riously disturb the operations of the land agency, no 
 such unlawful combinations have been formed, but that 
 the only remedies sought for that which was believed 
 to be unjust and oppressive, have been by applications 
 to the legislatures and by defences in the courts. These 
 are things which those who tremble for the sacredness 
 of property in republics will do well to consider. 
 
 The duty of the citizens to the alien proprietors is 
 plain ; to urge an observance of it would be justly of- 
 fensive. There is no disposition in the mass of citi- 
 zens to grant the proprietors anything less than justice. 
 Law will be regarded ; rights will not be disturbed ; 
 public faith will not be violated, and to urge in this 
 case the practice of common honesty would be in the 
 highest degree insulting. So long as the courts and 
 the legislatures recognize the title of the proprietors, 
 the people will not discredit the commonwealth hj ille- 
 gal resistance to authority. 
 
 Amidst all the causes of vexation which encompass 
 us, there are yet various pleasant reflections for the 
 exasperated republican to console himself withal, not 
 the least of which is, the certainty that we shall in due 
 time be delivered from the feudal phantoms which have 
 so long beset us. 
 
 The mill-wheel turned by water never rests, but the 
 institution that goes by land must sooner or later stop 
 grinding. The water that pours through the floom 
 goes down to the sea, but rises again in fogs and va- 
 
240 
 
 pors ; it ascends to the clouds ; the winds blow it land- 
 ward ; it falls again upon the hill tops, and again pours 
 through the floom. For the land ofiSce there is no such 
 hope. The element that keeps its wheels in motion 
 never evaporates. Acres of gravel do not readily be- 
 come clouds and rain themselves again into the Duke 
 of Cumberland's pond ; and section lots, especially if 
 they contain a ton or two of mountains, are most dis- 
 couraging materials for a fog to feed upon. The re- 
 publican, therefore, terrified or unterrified, may confi- 
 dently look forward to the time when the coronets of 
 English Peers will no longer glitter in the air, greatly 
 to the disturbance of the public temper, when " arti- 
 cles," " instalments," " interest," " assignments," 
 " back payments," and all the terms of that unpopular 
 vocabulary will become dead language ; when the de- 
 puty sherifi''s occupation will be gone, and when Er- 
 nest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of 
 Hanover, having been honestly and fairly paid for that 
 which the law declares to be his, will beg no more the 
 thunder of the courts to avenge, or the shield of the 
 legislatures to protect him, but will abandon his title- 
 deeds, discharge his stewards, and vanish forever be- 
 hind the fogs of the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 
 
 THE INDIANS. 
 
 It will not be necessary to speak of the history, 
 laws or customs of the Six Nations in this volume ; 
 sufficient information for present purposes, as to those 
 matters, is possessed by the popular mind. Steuben 
 County constituted a part of the domain of the Sene- 
 cas. The Indians with whom the pioneer had inter- 
 course were from the North, and visited this region 
 only to hunt. Many hundreds of them came in the 
 winter from the Genesee, and even from the Niagara, 
 built their lodges around in the woods, and killed deer 
 for their summer's stock of dried venison, and other 
 wild animals for their peltry. 
 
 The complement of a hunting lodge varied accord- 
 ing to circumstances. vSometimes a solitary old sav- 
 age made his wigwam apart from his brethren, and 
 hunted, fished and slept in silence ; sometimes the neat 
 lodge of a couple of young comrades might be seen on 
 some little island cf the river, and sometimes the woods- 
 man came upon a camp-fire blazing in the forest by 
 night, where a score or more of hunters, squaws and 
 children were eating and drinking in a very free and 
 comfortable manner. The Indian ^' at borne" was not 
 often found by the pioneers to be that taciturn and im- 
 22 
 
242 
 
 movable Roman which the romancers paint him. When 
 before the fire of his wigwam with a half-a-dozen com- 
 panions, he talked, laughed and joked, and had an 
 odd habit of making a meal every quarter of an hour, 
 as if afflicted with a chronic hunger, putting his hand 
 into the kettle, or fishing up with a sharp stick a piece 
 of venison as big as his fist at every pause of the con- 
 versation, till the young settler, witnessing this per- 
 petual banquet, feared that he would kill himself. He 
 did not talk in riddles or allegories like those whale- 
 bone braves who stalk through the novels, but was of- 
 ten inclined to be shrewd and comical in his language, 
 and sometimes loved practical jokes not of the most 
 delicate order. 
 
 During the first few years of the settlement, many 
 of the inhabitants were uneasy at the presence of the 
 Indians. Some prepared to leave the county, and a 
 few actually did leave it from apprehension of an at- 
 tack. After the defeat of Harmar and St. Clair, in 
 the Northwestern territory, the savages were often 
 insolent and abusive, but Wayne's victory on the Mi- 
 ami, in 1794, put an end to their plots, and they af- 
 terwards conducted themselves with civility. Some of 
 the settlers, however, were not entirely assured for 
 several years. The wives of many of the emigrants 
 from the East, unused to wild life, and familiar with 
 the terrible fame of the Six Nations, lived in constant 
 alarm — not an inexcusable fear when a score or two 
 of barbarians came whooping to the cabin door, or rais- 
 ed the midnight yell in their camp by the creek-side, 
 till even the wolves were ashamed of them. 
 
i 
 
 243 
 
 The intercourse between the settlers and Indians, 
 were generally friendly and social. The latter, how- 
 ever, had occasion sometimes to complain of lodges de- 
 stroyed and furs stolen, and of other annoyances to be 
 expected from civilized men. A hunter living at the 
 Eight Mile Tree, (Avoca,) wished to drive the Indians 
 from a certain hunting ground. These Native Ameri- 
 cans were singularly reluctant to labor, and lather 
 than chop down a tree for fuel, would walk half a mile 
 to pick up an armful of scattered sticks. Founding 
 his scheme upon this trait of character, the hunter cut 
 a great many branches from the trees in the vicinity 
 of their camps, bored augur-holes into them, filled the 
 orifices with gunpowder, plugged them carefully, and 
 strewed these treacherous engines through the vroods. 
 The Indians knew not what good spirit to thank for 
 this miraculous shower of fire-vrood, and gathered a 
 great supply for their lodges. The disasters tliat fol- 
 lowed were unaccountable. Now a loud explosion blew 
 a quart of coals into the face of seme mighty chief — 
 then another hidden magazine being kindled, filled the 
 eyes of the presiding squaw with dust and ashes, and 
 another hoisted the pot off the fire, or hurled the roast- 
 ing venison into the basket where the papoose was 
 sleeping. The wood was plainly bewitched. Timber 
 with such fiery sap was not to be endured. The Indi- 
 ans abandoned the neighborhood with precipitation, 
 and left the hunter in quiet enjoyment of his forest- 
 rights. 
 
 There were some occasions when the Indian was 
 seen in his glory, arrayed in flaming blankets, adorn- 
 
244 
 
 ed with plumes and medals, girt with curious belts, 
 from which glittered the knife and toraahav/k. Thus 
 shone the warriors on their return from the Con- 
 vention at Newtown, in the winter of 1791.* But 
 after a few years of familarity with civilized men, the 
 savage was seldom seen abroad in ancient style. The 
 braves were inclined to become utter vagabonds, and 
 gradually adopted that mixture of civilized and savage 
 dress, which it is not going too far to pronounce 
 shocking. Romance was horrified. The *' dark-eyed 
 forest-belles," so dear to poetry, looked like stage- 
 drivers. 
 
 The traffic in liquors here, as elsewhere, proved 
 ruinous to the unfortuate Indians. A large portion of 
 their game was bartered for spirits. A favorite place 
 for their carouses at Bath was in the bushes at the 
 edge of the village, opposite the present jail. Here, 
 floundering in the under-bush, howling, singing and 
 screaming all night, they suggested vivid and singular 
 dreams to the sleeping villagers. On such occasions 
 the squaws, like considerate wives, stole the knives of 
 their lords, and retired to the woods, till the fainter 
 and less frequent yells from the bushes announced that 
 the " Romans" were becoming overpowered by sleep. 
 The townsmen were sometimes amused at their fishing. 
 A half-a-dozen Indians wading up the river, and push- 
 
 * Mr. David Cook, a settler of Painted Post, met, while moving 
 up, 300 Indians on the Chimney Narrows, who were going to the 
 Treaty. On their retm-n they were detained for a long time at 
 Painted Post by a great snow-storm, till they could make snow- 
 shoes, greatly to the annoyance of the settlers. 
 
( 
 
 245 
 
 ing a canoe before tlienij would spear their boat half- 
 full of fish in an incredibly short time, and sell their 
 cargo for a mere trifle. The spear was but a pole 
 with a nail in the end of it. 
 
 About thirty years ago, Mr. Joshua Stephens, a 
 young man of Canisteo, was found dead in the woods, 
 having been shot by two rifle balls. The murder had 
 been evidently committed by Indians. Two of these, 
 named Curly-eye and Sundown, were arrested on sus- 
 picion of having committed the deed, and were after- 
 wards tried at Bath. The affair created a great sen- 
 sation, and the trial was attended by a large concourse 
 of people. Red Jacket and other prominent chiefs 
 were present. The evidence against the prisoners 
 was of a strong character, but they were acquitted. 
 After this event the Indians became shy and evacuated 
 the county, and never again returned except in strag- 
 gling bands. 
 
 We have been told, on pretty good authority, of an 
 " Indian-hater" living near the mouth of Mud Creek, 
 in the town of Bath, many years ago. A settler in 
 that neighborhood was requested one morning by one 
 of his neighbors to go out to the woods and help him 
 bring in a large buck which he had shot. On com- 
 ing at the designated place, the hunter opened a pile 
 of brush, and showed his companion the dead body of 
 an Indian. He said that his father's family had been 
 massacred by the savages in the Revolution, and since 
 that event he had killed every Indian he could meet in 
 a convenient place. This was nearly the twentieth. 
 22* 
 
246 
 
 INDIAN NAMES, ETC. 
 
 The Indians and their institutions can, upon the 
 •whole, be spared from our social system, though there 
 are not wanting those who find it in their hearts to de- 
 plore the decay of both — a melancholy thing to think 
 of, truly. Yet, when it is considered how many of 
 their practices were irreconcilable with the maxims of 
 distinguished jurists, the most enthusiastic admirer of 
 barbarism must admit that the preservation of the 
 statutes and ceremonies of the Long House would be 
 attended, at least, with inconvenience. The tomahawk, 
 the scalping knife and the javelin, are properly, we 
 think, excluded from the accoutrements of a well- 
 dressed, civilized man, and v;e are quite sure that an 
 enlightened public opinion would frown upon that grave 
 and respectable cit.zen, who, out of respect for the 
 earliest inhabitants of the county, should appear at 
 town-meeting, at church, or at any other public as- 
 semblage, painted with red paint and black, decorated 
 with porcupine quills, and arrayed in a crimson blan- 
 ket. A cultivated community will always entertain 
 sentiments of reverence for ancient fashions, and for 
 the customs of former generations ; yet, would not 
 such a spectacle as that of the elderly gentlemen and 
 clergy of the county, shrieking, howling, and dancing 
 the grand War- Dance around a post in the Public 
 Square of the shire town, fill the mind of a judicious 
 man with melancholy forebodings with regard to the 
 sanity of such elderly gentlemen and divines? There 
 jare yet certain vestiges of the ancient tribes for which 
 
247 
 
 men of taste and learning earnestly plead — the names 
 which they attached to their lakes, rivers, towns and 
 castles. Whether deep and sonorous as Otsego, Ni- 
 agara, Cayuga, Tioga, Onondagua, or light and musical 
 as Unadilla, Wyalusing, Canisteo, Susquehanna, or 
 abrupt and warlike as Mohawk, Conhocton, Shemokin, 
 Tunkhannock, the names given by the Six Nations, 
 were sweet or heroic of sound. The barbarous dialects 
 which give us Penobscot and Passaraaquoddy, or the 
 still more atrocious Chattahoochie, Okechobee, Tom- 
 bigby, Withlacoochie and other frightful words which 
 prick the Southern ear, (though atoned for by the 
 noble Alabama, Catawba, Savannah,) and the utterly 
 heathenish Michilimacinac, Pottawottaraie, Oshkosh, 
 Kaskaskia and Winnipeg, of the North West, are fit 
 for Ghouls, and " men whose heads do grow beneath 
 their shoulders." 
 
 A lecture may profitably be read on the subject of 
 names to people of our own and adjoining counties, and 
 in doing so we do but echo what has been frequently 
 proclaimed through other trumpets. The American 
 map looks like a geographical joke. We name our 
 towns after all heroes, from Hector to General Lopez — 
 after all patriots, from Maccabeus to Daniel Shays — 
 after all beasts, birds, fishes, and creeping things— to 
 which there is certainly no objection, but one may 
 plead that when we have exhausted Plutarch's Lives, 
 and the Pension Roll, a few of the fine old Indian 
 names may be recovered. In our own county, the 
 musical and forest-like Tascarora, was changed first to 
 Middletown^ which caused confusion in the mails, (that 
 
248 
 
 popular name having been fairly grabbed by other 
 towns which were so lucky as to stand half way be- 
 tween two places,) and afterwards to Mdison, in 
 honor, probably, of the essayist, who never saw a 
 stump, a raft, or a saw-mill. The post-office of Tobe^ 
 hanna was lately changed to JUtai, which is a moun- 
 tain range in the antipodes, and would lead strangers 
 to suppose that Tyrone was settled by Siberians. Our 
 neighbors of Chemung became disgusted at the odd, 
 but significant and historical name of Horse-heads^ 
 (being the place where Gen. Sullivan killed his horses,) 
 and elegantly changed it to Fair-port^ indicating, we 
 suppose, that scows on the Chemung Canal are there 
 secure from tempests. It is unfortunate that the 
 schoolmaster was out of town when the change v/as 
 made, for the offending Saxon might have been dis- 
 guised under the magnificent syllables of Hippocepkali, 
 At the head of Seneca Lake lived for many years a 
 famous Indian Queen, Catharine Montour, a half- 
 breed, and surmised to have been a daughter of Count 
 Frontenac. Her village was known far and wide as 
 Caiha7'ine^s Town. They now call it Jefferson — an 
 act of " proscription" which the great republican 
 would have scowled at.* Painted Post will probably 
 have to go next under the reign of refinement — a capi- 
 tal name, suggestive, historical and picturesque. If 
 it is desirable to be known abroad, citizens of that vil- 
 lage will do well to let the name stand as it is, for 
 
 * The actual village may have been a little out of town — ^but that 
 makes no difference. 
 
249 
 
 while Painted Post will arrest the stranger's eye more 
 quickly perhaps than any other name on the map of 
 Western New York, if this is changed to Siam or 
 Senegambia, /ijax or Coriolanus, or any other title 
 which the fashion of the day requires, the Painted 
 Posters cannot hope to be distinguished from the mob 
 of citizens "who dwell in villages bearing the names 
 of foreign kingdoms, and heroes of the " Silurian 
 epoch." 
 
 Similar advice is ready for our neighbors at the foot 
 of Crooked Lake whenever it may be called for. 
 Pemi- Yan is undoubtedly a very queer word — rather 
 Chinese at least — and when pronounced with the 
 favorite twang of our ancients. Pang Ymig, the sound 
 is as clearly " celestial" as Yang-Kiang, and the 
 stranger would expect to find the village adorned by 
 Mandarins and Joshes, and to see the populace, from 
 the seniors down, diverting themselves with kites, 
 fire-crackers and lanterns. For the relief of puzzled 
 philologists, however, it may be explained that the 
 "word was not imported in a tea-chest, but was made 
 from the first syllables of the words Pennsykmnian and 
 Yankee^ and indicates the races of the first settlers. 
 It should by no means be disturbed. 
 
 It is a pity that so many fine villages of Western 
 New York are saddled with names absurdly borrowed 
 from the Old World. It would seem as if Congress 
 had granted bounty lands to heroes of the Trojan and 
 Punic wars ; at all events, the names of those old 
 veterans are affixed to more townships than there were 
 sons of Priam Buffalo, Osv,ego, Canandaigua and 
 
250 
 
 Genesee, are almost the only towns of importance 
 which have escaped the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 Our own country must confess itself to be destitute 
 of European or classical townships, but can yet boast 
 of very illustrious neighbors. We have but to step 
 over our Northern boundary to " see Naples and die." 
 The distance from Naples to Italy, though greater 
 here than it is in Europe, is yet but inconsiderable, 
 •while the distance from Italy to Jerusalem is less than 
 in the Old World. In fact, the city of David here 
 abuts the land of Caesar. On the Eastern side of the 
 county behold the hero Hector^ a brown Republican, 
 farmer, shaking no more the bloody spear as he looks 
 from his orchards into the waters of Seneca, having 
 long since exchanged the chariot for the horse -rake. 
 His old antagonist, Ulysses, has located his land- 
 warrant in the next range. On the West Ossian 
 howls his humbugs in the latitude of Loon Lake, and 
 Saxon Alfred lives unmolested by marauding Danes. 
 The Spartans have colonized the adjoining corner of 
 Livingston County, and appear to have quite given up 
 black broth and laconics. The Athenians are to be 
 found at the mouth of the Chemung,* and when the 
 up-river raftmen, whooping and yelling, steer their 
 rafts down the spring- flood, the citizens of the town 
 are probably reminded of the time when the Goths 
 came with similar uproar through the Hellespont, and 
 sacked their city — a blow from which, judging from 
 the present state of the fine arts at Tioga Point, it 
 
 * Athens, at the mouth of the Chemung, was formerly Tioga 
 Point. The old name shows sense, the new one the want of it. 
 
251 
 
 would seem that the seat of the muses never re- 
 covered. 
 
 Crooked Lake is the translation of Keuka, the ab- 
 original name. Conhocfon signifies come-together. It 
 is sometimes erroneously rendered Trees -in-the-water. 
 Five Mile Creek was formerly called Canoni. Gen. 
 McClure says that Bath bore the name of Tanighna- 
 guanda, by no means a euphonious one. Chemung is 
 said to mean Big-hone* The tradition that the iden- 
 tical bone by which the name was suggested, was 
 taken from the river-bank by boatmen after the settle- 
 ment must be erroneous. The Indians had a village 
 and corn-field near Elraira, at the time of Sullivan's 
 expedition, named Chemung^ and the river was called 
 the Chemung Branch. Further information concerning 
 the aboriginal names of localities in this county we 
 cannot give, and would be glad to receive. 
 
 GAME, ETC. 
 
 It is said in a manuscript, consulted in the prepara- 
 tion of this volume, that " Many of the hunters esti- 
 mated that there were from five to ten deer on every 
 hundred acres of land in the county, or in that propor- 
 tion throughout the country over which they hunted. 
 The probability is, that this estimate would not be too 
 high for many parts of the forest which were favorite 
 haunts of the deer, but then there would be other tracts 
 which they frequented but little, so that for the wiiole 
 extent of territory embraced in the present limits of 
 the county, equal to about 900,000 acres, it would 
 
252 
 
 probably be correct to estimate that at the first settle- 
 ment of the country, there were, on an average, as 
 many as four deer for every hundred acres of land — 
 making the number within the present limits of the 
 county, not less than 36,000. 
 
 An intelligent and respectable man, who came from 
 Pennsylvania among the first emigrants from that 
 State, used to relate that in the fall of the year 1790, 
 or 1791, two young men came from near Northum- 
 berland up the rivers in a canoe, on a hunting expedi- 
 tion, built a lodge at the mouth of Smith's Creek, on 
 the Conhocton, and hunted in that neighborhood. In 
 the course of two months they killed upwards of two 
 hundred deer, several elk, some bears and three pan- 
 thers. Elk were at that time quite numerous in most 
 parts of tbe county, and were found south of the 
 Canisteo River, ten or fifteen years after. They also 
 killed a number of vrolves, foxes and martins, and a 
 few beaver. The hunters preserved as much of the 
 venison as they could, and with that and the skins 
 they had taken, they loaded two large canoes, and 
 early in the winter returned to Northumberland, where 
 they sold their cargoes for upwards of ^300. 
 
 Sixty years of persecution with hounds and rifle have 
 not exterminated the deer ; but, as may well be be- 
 lieved, the buck that now shakes his horns in the 
 forest, does so with little of that confidence with which 
 in former times his predecessors tossed aloft their 
 antlers. In twenty-four hours his ribs may be smok- 
 ing on the dinner-table of a hotel, his hide may be 
 steeping in the vats of the mitten-makers, and his 
 
253 
 
 horns may be grating under the rasps of the men that 
 make cane-heads and knife-handles. In the days be- 
 fore the conquest, notwithstvanding the depredations of 
 the wolves and Indians, the deer constantly increased 
 in numbers, or at least held their own, and lived in a 
 high state of exhilaration. It was a fine sight, that of 
 a full-grown buck racing through the woods, clearing 
 " fifteen to twenty feet, often twenty-five feet, and 
 sometimes more than thirty feet of ground, at a single 
 jump." The last elk killed in the county was shot 
 in the town of Lindley, about yorty years ago. 
 
 As for the wolves, history despairs of doing them 
 justice. They deserve a poet. How they howled, 
 and howled, and howled ; how they snarled and snap- 
 ped at the belated woodsman ; how they killed the 
 pigs and the sheep ; how they charmed the night with 
 their long drawn chorus, so frightful that ** it was 
 enough to take the hair ofi* a man's head," and yet so 
 dismally hideous that it could not but be laughed at 
 by the youngsters — all these must be imagined ; words 
 are too feeble to do justice to the howling of one wolf 
 in the day time, much less to the howling of ten wolves 
 at night, in the depth of a hemlock forest. Each pack 
 had its chorister, a grizzled veteran, perhaps, who 
 might have lost a paw in some settler's trap, or whose 
 shattered thigh declared him a martyr for the public 
 good. This son of the Muses, beginning with a for- 
 lorn and quavering howl, executed a few bars in solo ; 
 then the whole gang broke in with miracles of discord, 
 as in a singing school the full voiced choir shouts in 
 chorus, after the teacher has shown them " how that 
 23 
 
254 
 
 chromatic passage ought to be executed." All the 
 parts recognised by the scientific, were carrie«l by these 
 " minions of the moon." Some moaned in barytone^ 
 some yelled in soprano, and the intermediate discords 
 were howled forth upon the night air in a style that 
 would make a jackall shiver. The foreign musician^ 
 awaked from his dreams by such an anthem, might 
 well imagine himself fallen from a land where the Red 
 Republicans had it all their own way, and having abro- 
 gated the rules of rythm and dynamics, with other 
 arbitrary and insufferable vestiges of the feudal system, 
 had established musical socialism. The wolves and 
 their howling linger more vividly than any other fea- 
 tures of the wilderness in the memory of old settlers. 
 It is only within a few years that they found the land 
 too hot for them. It is not a great while since the 
 citizens of the shire town were occasionally behowled 
 from the Rollway Hills, and among those who, fifteen 
 years ago, were very young school-boys, the memory 
 is yet green of that day when the weightiest and grav- 
 est of the townsmen, with many others who were not 
 quite so weighty and grave, sallied forth with the 
 avowed purpose of exterminating the wolves which 
 lurked in the surrounding hills — a campaign barren 
 of trophies indeed, but which must have carried dis- 
 may into the councils of the enemy, and convinced 
 them of the uselessness of opposition to their " mani- 
 fest destiny." A few members of this ancient family 
 may yet lurk in the wild corners of the country, but 
 the more discreet have withdrawn to the solitudes of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
255 
 
 The panthers have vanished, hide and hair, leaving 
 a reputation like that of the Caribs. The *^ painter," 
 in lack of lions, must always be the hero of desperate 
 hunting tales, and were it not for the too well estab- 
 lished fact that his valor was rather freely tempered 
 with discretion, he would be a higlily available cha- 
 racter for the novelists. Except when wounded, they 
 were not feared. Though powerful of frame and fe- 
 rocious of face, they belied physiognomy and were 
 generally quite willing to crawl off, or at most to stand 
 at bay when met by the hunters. This forbearance, 
 it must be confessed, arose not so much from sweet- 
 ness of temper as from a bashfulness which almost 
 amounted to cowardice. They disappointed the ex- 
 pectations of their friends, and invariably forsook their 
 backers before coming up fairly to the *' scratch." 
 However, the fierce face, the lion-like proportions, (they 
 were from seven to ten feet long,) and the collusion of 
 the novelists, have proved too much for the truth, and 
 the "Great Northern Panther" at this day rivals in 
 popularity Captain Kyd and Black-Beard. When 
 exasperated by wounds he showed himself worth}' of 
 this high favor, but under ordinary provocation he was 
 scarcely more terrible than a wood -chuck. For in- 
 stance, a housewife, who owned Ireland as her native 
 land, while attending to her domestic duties in the 
 cabin, heard signals of distress among the pigs. On 
 going out to see what had befallen her porkers, she 
 found a fine shoat attacked by a panther. It was evi- 
 dently the first acquaintance of the robber with 
 animals of this species, for as often as he sprang upon 
 
256 
 
 the back of his prey, the pig squealed dismally, and 
 the panther bounced oflf in amazement, as if he had 
 alighted upon a hot stove. The lady ran screaming, 
 and with arms uplifted, to rescue her pig, and the 
 " Great North American Panther," instead of anni- 
 hilating both pig and " lady-patroness" on the spot, 
 scrambled into the top of a tree with evident alarm. 
 The woman sent her husband straightway to fetch 
 Patterson the hunter with his rifle, and stood under 
 the tree to blockade the enemy. Several times the 
 latter offered to come down, but his intrepid sentry 
 screamed and made such violent gestures, that the 
 panther drew back in consternation. The hunter came 
 in an hour or so and shot it just as it took courage to 
 spring. 
 
 The bear, too — the wise, respectable and indepen- 
 dent bear was, in early times, a citizen of substance 
 and consideration. Statistics concerning him are 
 wanting. Disturbed by bone-breaking bullets in his 
 berry gardens and plum orchards, blinded by gusts of 
 buckshot that blew into his face as he put his head out 
 of his parlor window, punched with sharp sticks by 
 malicious youngsters as he sat nursing his wounded 
 hams in the seclusion of a hollow log, plagued by 
 ferocious traps which sometimes pinched his feet, some- 
 times grasped his investigating nose with teeth of steel, 
 assailed in his wooden tower by axe-men hewing at its 
 basis, while boys with rifles waited for its downfall — • 
 the bear, we say, distressed by a line of conduct that 
 rendered his existence precarious, emigrated to the 
 mountains of the Key Stone State in disgust. 
 
257 
 
 As for the lesser tribes, known as wild-cats, cata- 
 mounts and lynxes, there were flourishing families of 
 those creatures in all parts of the land, and thej are 
 still occasionally heard from in the outer districts. 
 The last one worthy of historical notice prowled for a 
 time in the interior woods, but his head at last pre- 
 eminent among the heads and tails of racoons and 
 wood-chucks, adorned the Log Cabin of Bath in the 
 picturesque election of 1 840, 
 
 There were but few beaver remaining in the streams 
 at the time of the settlement. The lively trade in 
 peltry which had been carried on between the Indians 
 and Europeans was attended with a disastrous loss of 
 fur to those poor creatures. In 1794 there were a few 
 beaver remaining in Mud Lake, but the renowned 
 Patterson set his eye upon them, and soon appeared 
 on the harmonious shores of that secluded pond with 
 his arms full of traps. Seven of the beaver were 
 caught, the eiglith and last escaped with the loss of a 
 paw. These were the last beaver taken in this 
 county. About twenty-five years ago a single beaver 
 appeared in the Tioga, and even showed his nose on 
 the farm of the old trapper. He was a traveller. He 
 visited various parts of the river, as agent perhaps for 
 some discontented colony on another stream, but 
 probably discouraged by the farms and saw-mills, left 
 the upper waters and appeared next in the lower 
 Chemung. He imprudently went upon an island of a 
 snowy morning ; Canisteo raftmen tracked him to a 
 corn-stout, beset, slew and skinned him, and delivered 
 his hide to the hatters. The streams, though depopu- 
 23* 
 
258 
 
 lated of beaver, abounded with fish, and contained for 
 many years fine shad and salmon. 
 
 Rattlesnakes will conclude this catalogue of wor- 
 thies. It has been previously intimated that these 
 deadly reptiles flourished in certain places in large 
 tribes. To say that there were thousands of them in 
 the Conhocton valley among the pines, would be to 
 speak modestly. The incident related of Patterson, 
 the hunter, in a previous chapter of this volume, is 
 sometimes told in a different form. It is told on ex- 
 cellent authority, that he and his dog were going down 
 the river trail, and killed rattlesnakes by daylight, till 
 the odor of them made him sick, and till his dog, which 
 was an expert snake-fighter, refused to touch them any 
 more — (an active dog will dance around a snake, dash 
 suddenly in, snatch it up in his teeth, and shake it to 
 death.) — It then becoming dark, he took the river and 
 w^aded two miles to its mouth. There is another story- 
 touching snakes, which history will not willingly let 
 die. The hero of the tale, it may be premised, was 
 the narrator of it, and the sole witness to the facts. 
 An old settler of this country was once journeying 
 through the woods, and when night came, found him- 
 self in a district infested by rattlesnakes, numbers of 
 which were twisting their tails in the bushes in great 
 indignation. Fearful that if he lay on the ground he 
 would wake up in the morning with his pockets full of 
 snakes, (for they are extremely free to snug up to 
 sleepers on chilly nights, to enjoy the warmth of the 
 human body,) in which case, it would be a delicate thing 
 to pull them out, he placed a pole across two crotched 
 
259 
 
 stakes, and slept on the pole. His slumbers were sound 
 and refreshing. In the morning lie found himself on 
 his roost with no serpents in his pockets, his boots, his 
 hat, or his hair, and observed, moreover, that, during 
 his sleep, he had unconsciously turned over from his 
 right side to his left. 
 
 So much for rattlesnakes. Concerning other kinds- 
 of serpents — black snakes, racers, and the like of which 
 there was no lack in this bailiwick, we have nothing to 
 ojQfer — not from disrespect, but from ignorance. 
 
 The chase, as we have seen, was not often attended 
 with peril ; yet there were times when the hunter was 
 obliged to move briskly for his life. The wounded 
 panther was a dangerous enemy. Men have been kill- 
 ed by them. A noted Canisteo hunter once hurt one 
 of these animals with a rifle ball, and it sprang upon 
 his dog as the first adversary it met. Knowing that 
 himself would be the next victim, the hunter closed 
 with the ferocious beast and killed it with his knife. 
 As it lay upon the ground after the fight, eight feet or 
 more in length, it looked like a lion, and the hunter was 
 astonished at his boldness. 
 
 A Justice of the Peace in one of the outer towns had 
 once occasion for a little practice, not provided for in 
 the " Magistrate's Manual." Relieving his judicial 
 cares by the pleasures of the chase, he one day met a 
 great panther which he severely wounded, but did not 
 immediately cripple it. The monster, enraged at the 
 tort, attacked him furiously. The plaintiff in the case 
 found himself unexpectedly made defendant. The 
 books suggested no proceeding for relief in such a 
 
260 
 
 strange turn of affairs, and he was obliged to fall back 
 on first principles. He dealt a rousing blow with his 
 gun, and then dexterousl}^ seized the panther's tail. 
 A novel action ensued, which was neither trover nor 
 replevin. The plaintiff, though partially disabled, had 
 yet so much of his former enormous strength, that, 
 when he turned with a savage growl to bite the defen- 
 dant, the latter, by jerking with all his might, baffled 
 the manoeuvre of his antagonist. This odd contest, 
 worthy of record in the " Crockett Almanac," lasted 
 a good while — jerking this way, jerking that way, re- 
 joinder and sur-rejoinder, rebutter and sur-rebutter — 
 till at length the panther became so weak from loss of 
 blood, that the guardian of the people's peace could 
 work the ropes with one hand ; when resuming his po- 
 sition as plaintiff, he speedily entered up final judgment 
 against the defendant with a hunting knife, and seized 
 his scalp for costs. This is a true story, (as also are 
 all other stories in this book) and can be proved by a 
 Supervisor, a Justice of the Peace, and a Town Clerk. 
 A Canisteo hunter was once watching a deer lick at 
 night. A large tree had partially fallen near the 
 spring, and he seated himself in its branches several 
 feet above the ground. No deer came down to drink. 
 Towards midnight the tree was shaken by the tread of 
 a visitor. It was a huge panther, which slowly 
 walked up the trunk and sat down on its haunches 
 within a very few yards of the hunter. The night 
 was clear and the moon was shining, but the uneasy 
 deersla3'er could not see the- forward sight of his gun, 
 and did not like to attempt the delicate feat of send- 
 
261 
 
 ing a bullet to the heart of such a lion so decisively 
 that there would be no snarling or tearing of his throat 
 afterwards. All night long they sat in mutual con- 
 templation, the hunter watching with ready rifle everj 
 movement of his guest ; while the latter, sitting with 
 the gravity of a chancellor, hardly stirred till day- 
 break. As soon as the light of morning brought the 
 forward sight in view the rifle cracked and the panther 
 departed life without a growl. 
 
 Wolves seldom or never were provoked to resist- 
 ance. The settler walking through the woods at dusk,, 
 was sometimes intercepted by a gang of these bush- 
 pirates, whom hunger and the darkness emboldened to 
 snarl and snap their teeth at his very heels ; but a 
 stone or a " chunk of wood" hurled at their heads was 
 enough to make them bristle up and stand on the de- 
 fensive. They were generally held in supreme con- 
 tempt. We hear of a bouncing damsel in one of the 
 settlements who attacked half a dozen of them with a 
 whip, just as they had seized a pig and put them to 
 flight, too late, however, to save the life of the unhappy 
 porker. 
 
 The buck, under certain circumstances, was a dan- 
 gerous antagonist. The following incident is given in 
 a manuscript heretofore alluded to : '' An individual 
 who eventually became a leading man in the county 
 and a member of Congress, once shot a buck near 
 Bath. He loaded his gun and walked up to the fallen 
 deer, which was only stunned, the ball having hit one 
 of his horns. When within a few steps of it, the deer 
 sprang up and rushed at him. He fired again, but in 
 
262 
 
 the hurry of the moment missed his aim. He then 
 clubbed his gun and struck at the head of the infu- 
 riated animal, but it dexterously parried the blow with 
 its horns and knocked the rifle out of the hunter's 
 hand to the distance of several yards. The hunter 
 took refuge behind a tree, around which the deer fol- 
 lowed him more than an hour, lunging at him with his 
 horns so rapidly that the gentleman who ''eventually 
 went to Congress" could not always dodge the blow, 
 but was scratched by the tips of the antlers and badly 
 bruised on his back and legs, and had almost all his 
 clothes torn off. He struck the deer several times 
 with his knife indecisively, but when almost tired out 
 managed to stab him fairly just back of the shoulder. 
 The enemy hauled off to repair damages but soon fell 
 dead. The hunter threw himself upon the ground 
 utterly exhausted, and lay several hours before he had 
 strength to go home. A man thus assailed was said 
 to be " treed by a buck." 
 
 THE PLUMPING MILL. 
 
 There are few tribulations of the new country about 
 which old settlers are more eloquent than those con- 
 nected with " going to mill." Grist mills being fab- 
 rics of civilization, were not of course found in a wild 
 state along the primitive rivers. The unfortunate sav- 
 age cracked his corn with a pestle and troubled his 
 head not at all about bulkheads and tail races, and, 
 although his meal was in consequence of a v^y indif- 
 ferent quality, yet it may be a question if this" was not 
 
263 
 
 compensated for by the freedom of the courts of the 
 Six Nations from those thrilling controversies about 
 flush-boards, and drowned meadows, and backwater on 
 the wheel, which do in modern times confound the two 
 and thirty Circuit Judges of the Long House. 
 
 In 1778, a grist-mill and saw-mill belonging to the 
 Indians and Tories, at their settlement of Unadilla, the 
 only mills in the Susquehanna valley in this State, 
 were burned by a party of rangers and riflemen. In 
 1790, four mills are noted on the map of Phelps and 
 Gorham's Purchase, one in T. 8, R. 3 ; one in T. 10, 
 R. 4 ; one at the Friends' Settlement near Penn Yan ; 
 one in Lindley town on the Tioga. Shepard's mill on 
 the Susquehanna, a short distance above Tioga Point, 
 was the main dependence of our settlers till they built 
 mills for themselves. The people of Painted Post and 
 Canisteo took their grain down to that mill for several 
 years. 
 
 There was, however, one truly patriarchal engine 
 which answered the purpose of the grist-mill in times of 
 necessity which it would be ungrateful not to remem- 
 ber. That backwoods machine known as the Plump- 
 ing Mill, the Hominy Block, the Samp Mortar, or the 
 Corn Cracker, is now as obsolete an engine as the 
 catapult or the spinning-wheel. The gigantic red 
 castles that bestride our streams rumbling mightily 
 with their wheels and rollers, while their mill-stones 
 "whirling day and night, crush the grains of a thousand 
 hills, are structures entirely too magnificent to be men- 
 tioned with a homely plumping-mill. Nevertheless, 
 granting all due deference to these portly and respect- 
 
264 
 
 able edifices, historians will insist that their rustic pre- 
 decessors be remembered with some degree of kind- 
 ness. 
 
 The Plumping Mill was made after this wise. From 
 the outer edge of the top of a pine stump, and at a 
 little distance within the extreme edge, so as to leave 
 a rim of about half an inch in breadth, augur holes 
 were bored toward the centre of the stump pointing 
 downward so as to meet in a point several inches below 
 the surface. Fire was placed on the top of the stump, 
 which, when it had eaten down to the augur holes, was 
 sucked according to atmospherical laws, through those 
 little mines and burned out the chip or conical block 
 nicely, leaving a large deep bowl. This was scraped 
 and polished with an iron and the mill was ready for 
 the engine. The engine was a very simple one of about 
 two feet stroke. From a crotched post a long sweep 
 was balanced like the swale of an old-fashioned well. 
 A pole, at the end of which was a pounder, was hung 
 from the sweep, and your mill was made. The back- 
 woodsman poured his corn into the bowl of the stump, 
 and working the piston like one churning, cracked his 
 corn triumphantly. Modern mills, with all their gor- 
 geous red paint and puzzling machinery, are uncertain 
 affairs at best — nervous as it were and whimsical, dis- 
 turbed by droughts and freshets, by rains and high 
 winds like rheumatic old gentlemen : there is always a 
 screw loose somewhere, and their wheels need '* fix- 
 ing " almost as often as the '' wheels of government." 
 But the sturdy old Plumping Mill was subject to no 
 such whimsies, no more than the men of the frontiers 
 
265 
 
 were to dyspepsia, or the women to hysterics and tant« 
 rums. 
 
 The reflecting citizen vrill duly honor the old Plump- 
 ing Mill. It is the pioneer engine. It can even now 
 be heard thumping on the edge of the Far West, 
 thumping on the outer edge of the Canadas, and so 
 will go, stoutly thumping its way across the Rocky 
 Mountains to the Pacific. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF THE WAR OF 1812. 
 
 At the commencement of the War of 1812, 
 the standing army of our country was a much 
 more respectable corps than it is at the present 
 day. Either from modern degeneracy or from our 
 superior enlightenment, the appearance of a pha- 
 lanx of militia in any public place in this noon 
 of the nineteenth century, is a signal for universal 
 laughter. Forty years ago it was not so. Then the 
 army of Napoleon could not have been much more an 
 object of respect to itself than the rustic regiment 
 which paraded yearly in each important village of 
 Western New York. There were many independent 
 companies of horse, rifles and artillery. The officers 
 took pride in the appearance of their men, and the men, 
 instead of indulging in all manner of antics, were dis- 
 posed to keep their toes pointed at a proper angle, and 
 to hold their guns with the gravity of Macedonians. 
 The militia was respected, and men of reflection beheld 
 in it a great bulwark to defend the republic against the 
 demonstrations of the Five Great Powers, and other 
 24 
 
266 
 
 monarchical pliantoms which hovered before the eyes 
 of our vigilant forefathers. The plume, the epau- 
 lette, the sash, were badges of honor. To be an officer 
 in the militia was an object sought for by respectable 
 men. The captain was a man of more consequence 
 than he would have been without the right to command 
 forty of his neighbors to ground arms, and to keep their 
 eyes right. It was a great addition to the importance 
 of a leading citizen that he was a colonel, and enjoyed 
 the right of riding upon a charger at the head of half 
 the able-bodied men of the county ; and the general 
 galloping with his staif from county to county, dining 
 with the officers of each regiment, and saluted by the 
 drums and rifles of five thousand republicanfi, was a 
 Bernadotte, a Wellington ; and, if a man of tact and 
 vigor, carried an important political influence. 
 
 The social constitution of this domestic army was, 
 of course, a different thing from that of the armies of 
 the European Marshals. Captains went to logging 
 bees and raisings with their rank and file, perhaps 
 ground their corn, possibly shod their horses. Colo- 
 nels and generals drew the wills of their legionaries, or 
 defended them in actions of assault and battery and 
 ejectment in the courts, or employed them on tbeir arks, 
 or bought their cattle. They were dependent upon the 
 men they commanded for elections as Sheriffs or Con- 
 gressmen. The inferior officers might be hailed by 
 their myrmidons as Tom or Harry, and, though the 
 high commanders were generally men of more stately 
 character, who were not to be treated exactly with such 
 familiarity, yet their relations with the soldiers were 
 
267 
 
 not those of Austrian Princes with their drilled boors. 
 When, therefore, one of these high field-officers went 
 forth to war, and indiscreetly put on the majesty of 
 Marlborough, or affected to look upon his men as the 
 Duke of York looked upon his, he soon found that the 
 social laws of a European army were not to be applied 
 to an army of such composition without modification. 
 There was occasionally one of these magnificent com- 
 manders who, after the war, suffered the consequences 
 of his exaltation, and even was in danger of being 
 handsomely thrashed by some indignant corporal, who, 
 at home, was the equal of his commander, but found 
 himself treated very loftily when his former comrade 
 commanded a corps upon the line, and snuffed the bat- 
 tle afar off. 
 
 The officer was expected to deal liberally with the 
 infirmities of his men, and, as one of the popular infirm- 
 ities in those times was a singular relish for stimulants, 
 the epidemic was treated after the most approved prac- 
 tice of the ancients. The colonel often knocked in the 
 head of a barrel of whiskey; the general, sometimes 
 after review, dashed open his two or three barrels of 
 the same delightful fluid, and the whole legion crowding 
 around quenched their thirsts at these inspiring foun- 
 tains ; majors, captains and adjutants, were held res- 
 ponsible for " small drinks," that the fatigues of the 
 day might be endured with greater patriotism. There 
 was, according to the best information we obtain, one 
 regiment in the county at the breaking out of the war. 
 On review day the militia from all parts of the county 
 met at Bath, 
 
268 
 
 Three companies of Steuben County militia weie 
 ordered out for three months' service on the lines in 
 the year 1812, two being independent companies of 
 riflemen, and liable, as such, to be called at pleasure 
 by the government, and the third being a company 
 drafted from the regiment. Many who were disposed 
 to volunteer, had been carried off by the recruiting 
 officers of the regular service. Captain James Sand- 
 ford commanded one of the rifle companies, which be- 
 longed chiefly to the town of Wayne, and the other, 
 which mustered about 50 men, belonged to the town of 
 Urbana, and was commanded by Capt. Abraham 
 Brundage. William White, of Pulteney, was his first 
 lieutenant, and Stephen Garner his ensign. Two rifle 
 companies from Allegany County were attached to 
 these, and the battalion thus formed was commanded 
 by Major Asa Gaylord, of Urbana. Major Gaylord 
 died on the lines. After his death, the battalion was 
 commanded by Col. Dobbins. The drafted company 
 was composed of every eighth man of the regiment. 
 Capt. Jonas Cleland of Conhocton, commanded. Sam- 
 uel D. Wells, of Conhocton, and John Gillet were 
 lieutenants, and John Kennedy, ensign. 
 
 These companies reached the frontiers just at the 
 time when Col. Van Rensselaer, with an army of 
 militia, was about to make an attack on the works and 
 forces of the British at Queenstown Heights. Capt. 
 Cleland, with many of his men, volunteered to cross 
 the boundary. 
 
 As to the movements of the Steuben County militia 
 on that day, there are discrepancies in the accounts of 
 
269 
 
 tho actors. We give the story of the ensign, after- 
 wards Major Kennedy, Sheriff of the county, a relia- 
 ble man, and brave soldier, and obtained from him as 
 related to our informant many years ago. 
 
 The men of the company, being ranged on the shore 
 of the Niagara river at the foot of the precipitous 
 bank, were fired upon by the British batteries on the 
 opposite side. The grape shot rattled furiously 
 against the rocks overhead. The captain advised his 
 men to seek a less exposed position, and disappeared 
 with some of his soldiers. He appeared again on the 
 field of battle, over the river, in the course of the 
 forenoon, and complaining of illness returned to the 
 American side. Lieutenant Gillett and Kennedy re- 
 mained under the fire of the British batteries with 
 most of the men, crossed the river, and went into the 
 battle. The former was well known through the county 
 as " Chief Justice Gillett," an eccentric oratorical man, 
 a Justice of the Peace sometime, and a practitioner in 
 the popular courts. Upon him devolved the command 
 of the company. It was doubted by some whether 
 this Cicero would make a very good figure upon the 
 battle field, and whether his chivalrous flourishes and 
 heroic fury would not suddenly fail him at the scent 
 of gunpowder. What was the surprise of the men when 
 the " Chief Justice," as soon as he snuffed the British 
 sulphur, rushed into the fight as if he had just found 
 his element, whirled his sword, bellowed savagely with 
 his coarse, powerful voice, urged on the men, cheered 
 and dashed at the Britons like a lion. The soldiers 
 were astonished to find themselves led by such a 
 24* 
 
270 
 
 chevalier. Even after receiving a dangerous and 
 almost mortal wound, he faltered not, but swung his 
 hat, brandished his sword, and continued his outlandish 
 uproar till he fell from pain and exhaustion.* 
 
 Ensign Kenned^', after the fall of the lieutenant, 
 took command of that part of Capt. Cleland's company 
 which crossed the river, and of a few others, hastily 
 formed into a company. At one time they were op- 
 posed to the Indians, whom they drove before them 
 into a wood. While exchanging an irregular fire with 
 these enemies among the trees, Benjamin Welles, a 
 young man from Bath, who stood beside Kennedy, 
 looking over a fence, was shot through the head and 
 mortally wounded. At the final engagement in this 
 random, but often gallantly-fought battle, Kennedy, 
 with his men, were ranged in the line formed to meet 
 the British reinforcements, which were just coming up. 
 
 * Old soldiers tell of a militia captain from a neighboring county, 
 who rvas engaged in the same battle, and was in some respects a 
 match for the fighting Chief Justice. He was a physician by pro- 
 fession — a dissenter from the establishment, however, never having 
 taken a degree — and accustomed to garnish his conversation with the 
 most sonorous language. In battle, he made good his words, and 
 fought bravely. He went into the fight in full uniform, adorning 
 himself with great care, and from this circumstance became a mark 
 for the Indians, who supposed that such a blaze of finery must cover 
 at least a Major General. He was last seen by his men engaged in 
 single combat with an Indian, slashing manfully with his sword, 
 while the savage danced around him with a hatchet, watching a 
 chance to strike. The next day the Indian made his appearance be- 
 fore the prisoners, clad in the gorgeous raiment of the captain. He 
 strutted to and fro with great self-admiration, and was not entirely 
 8ure that he had not slain the President of the United States. 
 
[ 
 
 271 
 
 *' Bill Wadsworth," as their general, was known to 
 the militia, (upon whom the command devolved after 
 the fall of Van Rensselaer,) went through their lines, 
 in a rough-and-readj style, with liat and coat oif, ex- 
 plaining to the inexperienced oflScers his plan. To 
 avoid the fire of the British the men were ordered to 
 retire below the brow of the hill upon which they were 
 ranged, and up which the enemy would march. When 
 the British appeared on the top of the hill the militia 
 were to fire from below. 'J'he slaughter would be 
 great ; they were then to charge bayonets, and in the 
 confusion might be successful, though the decisiveness 
 of a charge of bayonets up a hill against veterans, by 
 militia, who before that day had never been under fire, 
 might well have been doubted. The first part of the 
 plan succeeded famously. As the British appeared 
 above the hiil a fire was delivered which was very de- 
 structive ; but a misapprehension of the word of com- 
 mand by part of the line caused disorder. The fire 
 was returned by the enemy. The militia suffered a 
 considerable loss, and fell back overpowered to the 
 river, where the most of them were made prisoners. 
 Of the Steuben County men two were killed and three 
 wounded. 
 
 It is popularly told, that on this day Ensign Ken- 
 nedy was engaged in personal combat with a British 
 officer, and being unacquainted with the polite learn- 
 ing of his newly-adopted profession, was speedily dis- 
 armed ; that he immediately closed with his confound- 
 ed antagonist, knocked him down \vith his fist, and 
 made him prisoner. The hero of the story, however, 
 
272 
 
 is said to have denied it. He was present at other en- 
 gagements, and gained the reputation of a cool and re- 
 solute officer. At the sortie of Fort Erie he served 
 with distinction. It was here that, under a close and 
 heavj fire, he paced to and fro by the heads of his men, 
 who had been ordered to lie flat on the ground to- 
 avoid the balls — not for a vain exposure of his person, 
 but " being an officer," he thought " it wouldn't do.'^ 
 ;•• In the second year of the war two companies were 
 drafted from the Steuben County militia, and sent ta 
 the Niagara frontier, under the command of Captains 
 James Read, of Urbana, and Jonathan Rowley, of 
 Dansville, faithful and reliable officers. Capt. Read 
 refused to go as a drafted officer, but reported himself 
 to the General of the Division, at the commencement 
 of the war, as ready to march at the head of a com- 
 pany, as a volunteer, whenever he should be called 
 upon. Both the companies were principally levied 
 from the Northern part of the county. Of Capt. Row- 
 ley's company, John Short and John E. Mulholland 
 were lieutenants, and George Knouse and Timothy 
 Goodrich, ensigns. Of Capt. Read's company, George 
 Teeples and Anthony Swarthout were lieutenants, and 
 Jabez Hopkins and O. Cook, ensigns. From muster to 
 discharge these companies served about four months. 
 All of the officers and most of the men volunteered to 
 cross the boundaries of the Republic, and were station- 
 ed at Fort George. 
 
 We have not succeeded in learning anything about 
 the draft for the last year of the war, if any was 
 
273 
 
 made, nor concerning the militia of this county who 
 were engaged at Fort Erie. 
 
 The following incident is related by one of the Steu- 
 ben County militia who was engaged in one of the bat- 
 tles on the line as sergeant of a company. His com- 
 pany was ordered into action, and before long found it- 
 self confronted by a rank of Old Peninsulars, arrayed 
 in all the terrors of scarlet coats and cartridge boxes. 
 When within a distance of ten rods from their enemies, 
 the militia halted, and were ordered to fire. Muskets 
 came instantly to the shoulder and were pointed at the 
 Britons with the deadly aim of rifles at a wolf hunt, 
 but to the dismay of the soldiers there was a universal 
 " flash in the pan " — not a gun went ofi". The sergeant 
 knew in an instant what was the cause of the failure. 
 The muskets had been stacked out of doors during the 
 night, and a little shower which fell toward morning 
 had thoroughly soaked the powder in them. It was his 
 business to have seen to it, that the muskets were cared 
 for, and upon him afterwards fell the blame of the dis- 
 aster. Nothing could be done till the charges were 
 drawn. There were but two ball-screws in the compa- 
 ny. The captain took one, and the sergeant the other, 
 and beginning their labors in the middle of the rank, 
 worked towards the ends. A more uncomfortable po- 
 sition for untried militia can hardly be imagined. The 
 men, as described by the sergeant, " looked strangely, 
 as he had never seen them before." The British 
 brought their muskets with disagreeable precision into 
 position and fired. The bullets whistled over the heads 
 of the militia. The British loaded their guns again : 
 
274 
 
 again the frightful row of muzzles looked the militia- 
 men in the face — again they heard the alarming com- 
 mand, -fire^ and again two score bullets whistled over 
 their heads. A third time the British brought their 
 muskets to the ground and went through all the terri- 
 ble ceremonies of biting cartridges, drawing ramrods, 
 and priming in full view of the uneasy militia. The 
 moistened charges were by this time almost drawn, and 
 when the enemy were about to fire the sergeant stood 
 beside the last man. He was pale and excited. " Be 
 quick sergeant — be quick for God's sake ! " he said. 
 They could hear the British officer saying to his men, 
 " You fire over their heads," and instructing them to 
 aim lower. The muzzles this time dropped a little be- 
 low the former range ; smoke burst forth from them, 
 and seven militia-men fell dead and wounded. Tho 
 sergeant had just finished his ill-timed job, and was 
 handing the musket to the private beside him, when a 
 bullet struck the unfortunate man between the eyes and 
 killed him. The fire of the British was now returned 
 with effect. Reinforcements came on the field and the 
 engagement became hot. An officer on horseback was 
 very active in arranging the enemy's line — riding to 
 and fro, giving loud orders, and making himself ex- 
 tremely useful. *' Mark that fellow !" said the ser- 
 geant to his right hand man. Both fired at the same 
 instant. The officer fell from his horse and was car- 
 ried off" the field by his men. They afterwards learned 
 that he was a Colonel, and that one of his legs was 
 broken. 
 
2T5 
 
 THE BATTLE OF DANSVILLE. 
 
 In the midwinter of 1814, the bareheaded express- 
 rider, galloping through the frozen forests, brings start- 
 ling tidings. The British Lion, bounding forth from 
 the snow-drifts of Canada, with icicles glittering in his 
 mane, has pounced upon the frontiers of the Republic. 
 Black Rock is taken ! Buffalo is burned ! General 
 Hall's militia have been captured and generally eaten. 
 The supervisors of Niagara County have been thrown 
 into the grand whirlpool. The floodgates of invasion 
 have been opened, and the whole standing army of 
 Great Britain, with several line-of-battle ships, and an 
 irregular horde of Canadians and Esquimaux, is now 
 rolling Eastward with fire-brands and artillery, break- 
 ing furniture, shattering flour-barrels, burning cabins, 
 blowing up mills, and terrifying the wives and children 
 of our fellow-citizens. 
 
 Since Col. Simcoe, brandishing his two-edged sword 
 on the ramparts of Toronto, beckoned those *'black war- 
 elephants" out of the billows of Ontario, there had not 
 been such a martial ferment in our county, as arose at 
 this alarming intelligence. Before the horse tnil of the 
 express-rider vanished beyond the Chimney Narrows, 
 the murmur of war arose from the valleys like the 
 humming in a disturbed bee-hive. The Brigadier blew 
 his gathering horn, and all the cavaliers and yeomen, 
 in the uttermost corners of the county, hurried to their 
 regimental mustering grounds. A draft was ordered 
 of every second man. 
 
 One battalion mustered on the Pultcney Square, at 
 
276 
 
 Bath. The snow was deep and the wind keen, but the 
 soldiers stood formed in a half-moon, with the fortitude 
 of Siberians. Col. Haight, mounted upon a black char- 
 ger, rode up with great circumstance, and made a vig- 
 orous and patriotic speech, calling for volunteers, and 
 exhorting every man to go forth to the battle. If half 
 the corps volunteered, a draft would not be necessary. 
 Nearly the requisite number offered themselves at once. 
 Then the deluding drum and the fanciful fife began to 
 utter the most seducing melodies. The musicians 
 again and again made the circuit of the regiment, as if 
 surrounding the backward warriors with some enchant- 
 ment. Drummers pounded with marvellous energy, 
 and the fifers blew into their squealing tubes with such 
 extraordinary ardor, that if the safety of the republic 
 had depended upon the active circulation of wind 
 through those "ear-piercing" instruments, all appre- 
 hensions of danger from the invaders might have been 
 instantly dismissed. Occasionally a militia-man broke 
 from the line and fell in behind the musicians ; but the 
 most of the legionaries who had resisted the first ap- 
 peal, stood in the snow, proof against drums, fifes, and 
 the Colonel's rhetoric. The draft to complete the 
 corps was finally made, and the battalion started for 
 the seat of war in high spirits. A great rabble followed 
 their enlisted comrades to Dansville in sleighs. A very 
 uproarious column it was. At Conhocton the army en- 
 camped. Houses, barns, pens and haystacks, over- 
 flowed with fire-eaters. 
 
 In the meantime the Canisteo country had been wide 
 awake. Col. James McBurney, hearing the Brigadier's 
 
277 
 
 alarming horn sounding its portentous quavers afar off, 
 mounted his snorting war-steed, and gathering together 
 his boisterous myrmidons from the sawmills and gorges, 
 set forth in hot haste.* At Dansville, the two battal- 
 ions met and united. Their descent from the forests 
 of Steuben was like an irruption of the Goths of old. 
 The chieftain of Canisteo opened the battle after the 
 ancient fashion, by a single combat in the presence of 
 the combined battalions. A broad-breasted barrel of 
 whiskey stood forth in its wooden mail, made thrice se- 
 cure by hoops of seasoned hickory. This grim foe the 
 undaunted Ostrogoth assailed with an axe, and, at the 
 first blow, beat open his head. The barbarians set up 
 a howl of triumph, and, crowding around, drank like 
 the Scandinavians out of the skull of their vanquished 
 enemy. The battle then became general. Streets and 
 bar-rooms resounded with tremendous uproar. Dans- 
 ville was captured, and her citizens knew no peace till 
 the invaders sank down, from exhaustion, to dream that 
 they had just fought a great battle on the Genesee 
 Meadows, in which the British fled before them, scam- 
 pered toward Canada like a multitude of rats, ran into 
 the Niagara, and were now sailing around in the great 
 whirlpool — cannon and horses, officers, non-commission- 
 ed officers, musicians and privates — while the Prince 
 Regent, according to the sentence of a drum-head Court 
 Martial, was hanging by his heels from an oak tree, 
 and the lion and unicorn, yoked like bullocks to the tri- 
 
 * CoL Wm. Stephens, of Canisteo, -waa his Major, and Col. J. R. 
 Stephens, of Horaellsville, Adjutant. 
 
 25 
 
273 
 
 umphal car of Colonel Haight, were dragging that vic- 
 torious consul around the Pulteney Square of Bath. 
 
 News arrived that the invaders had retired into 
 Canada. The drafted battalions were discharged and 
 returned again to their homes. ^ The Canisteo Alaric 
 covered the retreat in a masterly manner, and saw to 
 it that none of the Steuben County fire-eaters who had 
 been put hors du combat by the enemy were left to the 
 tender mercies of the Dansvillains. Certain young 
 men who were entirely captivated by the free and vo- 
 ciferous spirit of the Canisteo and followed the Goths 
 of Col. McBurney to their own valley, relate at the 
 present day with laughter the adventures of the re- 
 treat, and talk of the life and hospitalities of the val- 
 ley with great satisfaction. 
 
 The muster, the march, the carouse, and the retreat 
 were the prominent features of this campaign, of which 
 Timour the Tartar might be proud. It was known to 
 the soldiery afterwards as the '^ Battle of Dansville." 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF STEUBEN COUNTY. 
 
 The County of Steuben was detached from the old County of 
 Ontario and constituted a separate County in the year 1796. 
 At the time of its organization it was divided into six towns, viz : 
 Bath, Canisteo, Dansville, Fredericton, Middletown and Paint- 
 ed Post. Since the organization, one tier of towns has been ta- 
 ken from the western side of the County and attached to Alle- 
 gany County, the territory constituting the present town of Bar- 
 Tington and Starkey with part of the town of Jerusalem has been 
 taken from the northern towns and annexed to Yates County, 
 and one quarter of a Township, including the village of Dans- 
 ville, has been given to Livingston. 
 
 COUNTY JUDGES. 
 
 William Kersey, appointed 1796 
 James Faulkner, " 1804 
 Samuel Baker, " 1814 
 
 Thomas McBurney, " 1816 
 James Norton, " 1823 
 
 Jacob Larrowe 
 
 Geo. C. Edwards, appointed 1826 
 Ziba A. Leland, 1838 
 
 Jacob Larrowe, 1843 
 
 William M. Hawley, 1846 
 
 David McMaster, elected 1847 
 , elected 1851. 
 
 COUNTY CLERKS. 
 
 George D. Cooper, 
 Henry A. Townsend, 
 John Wilson, 
 Edward Howell, 
 John Metcalfe, 
 
 1796 
 1799 
 1815 
 1818 
 1821 
 
 David Rumsey, 
 William H. Bull, 
 William Hamilton, 
 Paul C. Cook, 
 Philo P. Hubbell. 
 
 1829 
 1832 
 1838 
 1844 
 1850 
 
 William Dunn, appointed 
 John Wilson, " 
 
 SHERIFFS. 
 
 1796 
 1800 
 
 John Magee, 
 John Kennedy, 
 
 elected 
 
 1822 
 1825 
 
280 
 
 l)ugald Cameron, " 
 
 1805 
 
 Alvah Ellas, 
 
 1828 
 
 Jacob Teeple, " 
 
 1809 
 
 George Huntington, 
 
 1831 
 
 Howell Bull, 
 
 1811 
 
 John T. Andrews, 
 
 1834 
 
 Thomas McBurney, " 
 
 1812 
 
 Henry Brother, 
 
 1837 
 
 Lazarus Hammond, " 
 
 1814 
 
 Hiram Potter, ' 
 
 1840 
 
 George McClure, " 
 
 1816 
 
 Hugh Magee, 
 
 1843 
 
 Henry Shriver, " 
 
 1819 
 
 Henry Brother, 
 
 1846 
 
 John Magee, " 
 
 1821 
 
 Oliver Allen, 
 
 1849 
 
 Gabriel T. Harrower, elected 1852. 
 
 
 
 SURROGATES. 
 
 
 Stephen Ross, appointed 1796 
 
 Henry A. Townsend, " 1800 
 
 George McClure, " 1805 
 
 John Metcalfe, " 1813 
 
 James Brundage, 
 
 William Woods, appointed 1827 
 Robert Campbell, jr. " 1835 
 David Rumsey,jr. " 1840 
 Ansel J. McCall, •• 1844 
 
 David McMaster, elected 1847 
 
 Jacob Larrowe, elected 1851. 
 
 POPULATION OF STEUBEN COUNTY. 
 
 Population in 
 
 1790 168 
 
 1800 1,788 
 
 1810 7,246 
 
 Population in 
 
 Population in 
 
 1850 62,969. 
 
 1820 21,989 
 1830 33,975 
 1840 46,138 
 
 POPULATION ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1850. 
 
 FIRST ASSEMBLY DISTRICT. 
 
 Bath, 
 
 6185 
 
 I Pulteney, 
 
 1815 
 
 Reading, 
 
 1435 1 Wheeler, 
 
 1471 
 
 Tyrone, 
 
 1894 Urbana, 
 
 2079 
 
 Prattsburgh, 
 
 2786 Wayne, 
 
 SECOND ASSEMBLY DITRICT. 
 
 1350 
 
 Bradford, 
 
 2010 
 
 Lindley, 
 
 686 
 
 Caton, 
 
 1215 
 
 Orange, 
 
 1887 
 
 Campbell, 
 
 1175 
 
 Painted Post, 
 
 4411 
 
 Cameron, 
 
 1663 
 
 Addison, 
 
 3723 
 
 Erwin, 
 
 1477 
 
 Woodhull, 
 
 1769 
 
 Hornby, 
 
 1314 
 
 Thurston, 
 
 726 
 
Wl 
 
 THIRD ASSEMBLY DISTRICT. 
 
 Avoca, 
 
 1574 
 
 Troupsburgh, 1656 
 
 Conhocton, 
 
 2006 
 
 Greenwood, 1186 
 
 Dansville, 
 
 2545 
 
 West Union, 950 
 
 Howard, 
 
 3144 
 
 Jasper, 1749 
 
 Hornellsville 
 
 2637 
 
 Canisteo, 2030 
 
 Hartsyille, 
 
 854 
 
 Way land, 2067 
 
 VOTES POLLED AT THE GENERAL ELECTION IN 1852. 
 
 For 
 
 For 
 
 Franklin Pierce, 
 
 6880 
 
 W^iNFiELD Scott, 5236 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS, &c. 
 
 Aeres of Land improved 336,981 
 
 " unimproved 338,415 
 
 Cash value of farms $13,581,268 
 
 Value of farming implements and machinery , .$ 676,792 
 
 LIVE STOCK. 
 
 Horses 12,744 
 
 Asses and mules 4 
 
 Milch cows 21,584 
 
 Working oxen 6,744 
 
 Other cattle 27,162 
 
 Sheep 156,776 
 
 Swine 23,939 
 
 Value of live stock $ 2,155,090 
 
 PRODUCE DURING YEAR ENDINO JUNE 1, 1850. 
 
 Wheat, bushels of 658,484 
 
 Eye, " " 16,033 
 
 Indian corn, " 297,717 
 
 Oats " " 913,948 
 
 Wool, pounds of 399,543 
 
 Peas and beans, bushels of 45,202 
 
 Irish potatoes, bushels of. 360,725 
 
 Sweet potatoes, " " 245 
 
 Barley *' " 153,056 
 
 Bvickwheat, " " 116.390 
 
282 
 
 Value of orchard products $ 30,565 
 
 Wine, gallons of 285 
 
 Value of produce of market gardens $ 3,740 
 
 Butter, pounds of 1,918,465 
 
 Cheese, pounds of 210,889 
 
 Hay, tons of 111,869 
 
 Clover seed, bushels of 1^386 
 
 Other grass seeds 4,479 
 
 Hops, lbs. of. .424 
 
 Flax, lbs of 16,241 
 
 Flax seed, bushels of 1,276 
 
 Silk cocoons, lbs. of 2 
 
 Maple sugar, lbs. of 294,897 
 
 Molasses, gallons of 3,547 
 
 Beeswax and honey, lbs. of 94,991 
 
 Value of home-made manufactures $ 76,287 
 
 Value of animals slaughtered $-296,798 
 
 SKETCH OF THE GENERAL HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT 
 IN WESTERN NEW-YORK. 
 
 The first European visitants of Western New York were the 
 French. During the first thirty years of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury the English made their earliest settlements in New Eng- 
 land and Virginia, the Dutch on the Hudson river, and the 
 French on the St. Lawrence. One hundred and fifty years 
 afterwards the English were lords of the Continent. At the 
 beginning of the race, however, the French dit-played a more 
 daring genius for adventure and conquest than.their competitors. 
 While tiie English Colonists were yet doubtfully struggling for 
 existence on the Atlantic shores, and the Hollanders, with 
 beaver-like prudence strengthened their habitations at Fort 
 Orange and New Amsterdam, French adventurers had ascended 
 the Great Lakes, and before the end of the seventeenth century, 
 crossed thence to the Mississippi, deccended that river to ita 
 mouth, and established trading posts and missions half way 
 across the continent.* 
 
 * Date of Cartiers Voyage to Hoehalaga (Montreal,) 1534 
 
 " " Settlement at Quebec, 1608 
 
 «. «« . " " Plymouth, 1620 
 
 " " " " New York, 1613 
 
 " '• " " Jamestown, 1607 
 
 " '• Marquette's Voyage down the Mississippi, 1673 
 
 ^' " Jja Salle's Western Explorations. 1682 
 
283 
 
 During the first century of French dominion in Canada, their 
 relations with the fierce proprietors of Western New York were 
 not peaceful, Champlain, the founder of Quebec, soon after 
 his advent to Canada, gave mortal oflFence to the Five Nations, 
 by assisting their enemies, the Hurons and Algooquins in a. 
 battle near Ticonderoga, where the fire-arms of the Europeans 
 gained for their confederates victory over the Iroquois. From 
 that time down to the beginning of the eighteenth century, the 
 implacable enmity of the red leaguers harrassed the colonists of 
 Canada. The expeditions of the French Governors into the 
 territory of their foes gained for them little beside disgrace. 
 From about the year 1700, however, the influence of the Jesuit 
 missionaries, and the prudence of the Governors preserved peace 
 between the former beligerents, and neutrality on the part of 
 the savages in the contests of France and Great Britain. When 
 the great rivals joined in the final struggle of 1754, the four 
 Western tribes of the Six Nations^- even took up the hatchet for 
 the French. Ten years later the English were supreme in 
 North America. 
 
 In 1771 the county of Albany embraced all the northern and 
 western part of the province of New York, and extended from 
 the Hudson river to the Niagara. In 1772 the county of Tryoa 
 was formed. It embraced all that part of the state lying west 
 <)f a North and South line running nearly through the centre 
 of the present county of Schoharie. It was named in honor of 
 Sir William Tryon, the provincial governor. The boundary 
 between the British and Indian territory as agreed upon in the 
 treaty of 1768, ran from Fort Stanwix, near Oneida Creek, 
 Southward to the Susquehanna and Delaware. 
 
 The settlement of this district was commenced early in the 
 iSth century, when nearly three thousand German Palatinates 
 emigrated to this country under the pationage of Queen Anne. 
 Most of them settled in Pennsylvania; a few made their way 
 in 1773 from Albany over the Helderberg to the bottom lands 
 of Schoharie creek and there efi'ected a settlement. Small 
 colonies from here and from Albany established themselves in 
 various places along the Mohawk, and in 1772 had extended 
 as far up as the German Flats, near where stands the village of 
 Herkimer. 
 
 In 1739, Mr. John Lindsay, a Scotch gentleman, founded the 
 settlement at Cherry Valley, which in a few years became the 
 
 *The Tuscaroras joined the Five Nations in 1712. 
 
284 
 
 home of a most worthy and intelligent community, mostly of 
 iScotch and "'Soot^-Irish" origin. 
 
 The gallant family of Harpers settled at Harpersfield in 1768, 
 and about the same time settlements were planted near Una- 
 dilla, and scattered families took up their residence in other 
 districts. The population of Cherry Valley was short of three 
 hundred, and that of all Tryon county not far from ten thou- 
 sand inhabitants when the Revolution opened. 
 
 For twenty years previous to the Uevolutionary war, Sir 
 William Johnson lived at Johnstown, the capital of Tryon 
 county, by far the most notable man bearing a British commis- 
 sion in th'e American provinces. Emigrating from Ireland in 
 the year 1737, as agent for the JMohawk estate of his uncle, 
 Sir Peter Warren, he early obtained distinguished reputation 
 and influence — rose to high military command, and in the last 
 French war, by his victory over Baron Dicskau, at Lake George, 
 and his successful seige of Fort JNiagara, gained fame, fortune, 
 and a Baronetcy. From that time till near the rupture between 
 the Crown and the Colonies, he lived at Johnson Hall, near 
 Johnstown, Superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern 
 provinces, with princely wealth and power, displaying an 
 administrative genius superior to any which had before been at 
 the service of the British government in America. In the 
 year 1774, an Indian Council was held at Johnstown, at which 
 were present a large number of the warriors of the Six Nations^ 
 besides many high civil dignitaries of the provinces of New 
 York and New Jersey. In the midst of the council Sir William 
 suddenly died. On the l3th of July he was borne from the 
 Hall to Lis grave, followed by a great concourse of citizens and 
 Indians, and lamented by all. 
 
 At the time of his decease, his department included 130,000 
 Indians, of whom 25,420 were fighting men. The Sis Nations 
 numbered about 10,000, and had two thousand bold and skillful 
 warriors. Colonel Guy Johnson, son-in-law of the late Superin- 
 tendent, succeeded Sir William in this important post. 
 
 In a few months the long gathering political agitations of the 
 Eastern provinces broke out into open and determined rebellion. 
 The patriots of Tryon county hailed with enthusiasm the tidings 
 from Boston, and met to express sympathy with their friends in 
 New England, and to organize for similar measures. Guy 
 Johnson became the leader of the loyalists. Sharp discussions 
 and correspondence between him and the revolutionary com- 
 mittee followed, and in a few months Colonel Johnson abandoned 
 bis residence at Guy Park, and attended by a formidable body 
 
285 
 
 0? iudian and Tory adherents, among whom were Col. Ciaus, 
 the Butlers and Brant, made his he id quarters at Fort Stanwix, 
 afterwards at Oswego, and finally at Montreal. To the latter 
 place iiv Join Johnsor, the son and heir of Sir William, followed 
 him with a body of three hundred loyalists, chiefly Scotch. 
 
 Then followed the bloody border wars of New York and 
 Pennsylvania. The British Government having determined to 
 commit the dastardly and disgusting wickedness of setting ten 
 thousand savages upon the scattered frontier settlements of the 
 United Colonies, found in the Johnsons and Butlers fit dispensers 
 of massacre to the Noailaern borders. A brief notice of the in- 
 cursions into Western New York, must suffice in this place. 
 
 It was not till the campaign of 1777 that the citizens of Try- 
 on county felt the power which had been enlisted against tliem. 
 Rumors of savage invasion it is true had alarmed them, and a re- 
 ported concentration of Indians at Oquago (now Windsor) on 
 the Susquehanna, excited at one time much apprehension. In 
 July of that year Gen. Herkimer, of the Tryori county militia, 
 marched to Unadilla with 300 men, and there held an interview 
 with Brant, the celebrated war-chjef, who also appeared with a 
 force of warriors. The Indians manifested a decided leaning 
 toward the English, and the conference, after nearly becoming 
 a deadly afiray, terminated. 
 
 In a few days afterwards it became necessary for the General 
 to issue a proclamation, announcing irapemiing invasion. Bur- 
 goyne with his well appointed army of 7,500 regular troops be- 
 side Canadian and Indian auxilaries, had reached Ticonderoga 
 on his march from Montreal toward N. York, and Gen. St. Leger 
 with about 2000 soldiers and savages began his march from 
 Oswego, with orders to take Fort Schuyler, and pass down the 
 Mohawk to Johnstown, and to fortify himself there. On the 3d 
 of August he arrived before Fort Schuyler, and found the garri- 
 son under Col. Gansevoort, prepared for a determined resistance. 
 Gen. Herkimer with 800 militia marched to reinforce the garri- 
 son. Apprised of this, St. Leger detached a body of soldiers and 
 Tories under Brant, and Col. Butler to watch his approach, and 
 if possible to intercept his march. A desperate hand-to-hand 
 battle was fought on the 6th of August in the woods at Oriska- 
 ny, a few miles from the Fort. The militia were surprised, and 
 suffered severely for their negligence. The rear division of the 
 column gave way at the first attack, and fled. The forward di- 
 vision had no alternative but to fight. "Facing out in every di- 
 rection they sought shelter under the trees, and returned the 
 fire of the enemy with spirit. In the beginning of the battle, 
 
286 
 
 the Indians, whenever they saw that a gun was fired from be- 
 hind a tree, rushed up and tomahawked the person thus firing 
 before he had time to reload his gun. To counteract this, two 
 men were ordered to station themselves behind one tree, the one 
 reserving his fire till the Indian ran up. In this way the In- 
 dians were made to sufier severely in return. The fighting had 
 continued for .^ome time, and the Indians had begun to give 
 way, when Major Watts, a brother-in-law of Sir John Johnton, 
 brought up a reinforcement consisting of a detachment of John- 
 son's Greens. The blood of the Germans boiled with indigna- 
 tion at the sight of these men. Many^ the Greens were per- 
 sonally known to them. They had fled their country and were 
 now returned in arms to subdue it. Their presence under any 
 circumstances would have kindled up the resentment of these 
 militia, but coming up as they now did in aid of a retreating 
 foe, called into exercise the most bitter feelings of hostility. — 
 They fired on them as they advanced, and then rushing from 
 behind their covers attacked them with their bayonets, and 
 those who had none, with the butt end of their muskets. This 
 contest was maintained hand to hand for nearly half an hour. — 
 The Greens made a manful resistance, but were finally obliged 
 to give way before the dreadful fury of their assailants, with the 
 loss of thirty killed upon the spot where they firtt entered. "-(Jn- 
 nals of Tryon County.') 
 
 The Americans lost in killed nearly 200, and about as many 
 wounded and prisoners. The Indians according to their own 
 statement lost 100 warriors killed ; and the tories and regulars 
 about the same number. Gen. Herkimer was wounded, and a 
 few days after the battle died. During the battle an efficient 
 sally was made from the Fort by Col. Willet. On the 22d of 
 August, St. Leger, alarm.ed at the rumored approach of Arnold, 
 abandoned the seige, and retired in great confusion, leaving be- 
 hind a great part of his baggage. 
 
 In the summer of 1778, Brant made his head-quarters at 
 Oquago and Unadilla, and there mustered a band of Indians and 
 Tories, ready for any barbarity which might offer. The inhabi- 
 tants of Cherry Valley threw up rude fortifications, of the need 
 of which the hovering parties of enemies gave warning. Sev- 
 eral attacks and skirmishes occurred along the frontiers. In 
 July of this year, Col. John Butler made the celebrated incur- 
 sion into Wyoming, After ravaging that ill-fated valley. Col. 
 Butler returned to Niagara, but the Indians again took their 
 Btation at Oquago. In the month of November, Capt. Walter 
 Butler, a son of the devastator of Wyoming, to gratify a person- 
 al resentment, obtained from his father a detachment of 200 
 
287 
 
 •' Butler Rangers," and permission to employ the 500 Indians 
 which Brant commanded at Oquago. Under circumstances which 
 proved the Tory commander to be the most pitiless barbarian of 
 the troop, their united forces assailed the little settlement of 
 Cherry Valley, on the mornino; of the llth November. Through 
 the inexcusable neglect of the officer in command of tlie Fort, 
 the farmers were surprised in their houses, with several officers 
 from the Fort, who were their lodgers. The commander of the 
 post, refusing to yield himself '^ prisoner, fell by the tomakawk. 
 A piteous scene of massacre and devastation followed. The 
 Senecas, the most untameable of the savages, with some tories, 
 were first in the Fray, and slew without mercy or discrimina- 
 tion. Brant and his Mohawks, less inhuman here than their 
 barbarous or renegade allies, plied their hatchets with less fury. 
 The buildings and stacks of hay and grain were Sred. The 
 troops in the Fort repelled the attack ot the enemy, but were 
 not strong enough to sally from their intrenchments. At night 
 the Indians had bogun their march homeward, with about forty 
 prisoners. On tho following day a detacliment of militia arriv- 
 ed from the Mohawk, and the last prowling parties of Indians 
 disappeared. The Annalist of Tryon County says, " The most 
 wanton acts of cruelty had been committed, but the detail is too 
 horrible and I will not pursue it further. The whole settlement 
 exhibited an aspect of entire and complete desolation. The 
 cocks crew from the tops of the foiest trees, and the dogs hoivled 
 through the fields and. ivoods. The inhabitants who escaped 
 with the prisoners who were set at liberty, abandoned the set- 
 tlement."* 
 
 *In the summer of 1781, Col. V»"illett met and defeated Major 
 Ross and Walter Butler, at Johnson Hall. In the rapid retreat 
 which followed, Capt. Butler was pursued by a small party of 
 Oneida Indians who adhered, alone of the Six Nations, to the 
 American side. Swiming his horse across the West Canada Creek, 
 he turned and defied his pursuers. " An Oneida immediately dis- 
 charged his rifle and wounded him and he fell. Thowing down 
 his rifle and his blani:et, the Indian plunged into the creek and 
 swam across. As soon as he had gained the opposite bank, he 
 raised his tomahawk, and with a yell, sprang like a tiger upon his 
 fallen foe. Butler supplicated, though in vain for mercy. The 
 Oneida with his uplifted axe, shouted in broken English, " Sherry 
 Valley ! remember Sherry Valley !" and then buried it in his 
 brains. He tore the scalp from the head of his victim, still quiv- 
 ering in the agonies of death, and ere the remainder of the Onei- 
 das had joined him, the spirit of Walter Butler had gone to give 
 up its account. The place where he crossed is called Butlers 
 Ford to tkis day." — {Annals of Tryon County.) 
 
S88 
 
 During the same year McDonald, a tory, with 300 Indians 
 and tories was ravaging the Dutch settlements of Schoharie. — 
 " What shall be done V^ said Col. Harper, the bold partisan, to 
 Col. Vroeman, the commander of the Fort, while the enemy 
 were scouring the country around. " O, nothing at all," the 
 officer replied, '• we be so weak we cannot do anytliing." Col. 
 Harper ordered his horse and laid his course for Albany — rode 
 right down through the enemy who were scattered over all the 
 country. At Fox's Creek he put up at a tory tavern for the night. 
 He retired to bed after having locked the door. Soon there 
 was a loud rapping at the door ^ "What is wanted?" "We 
 want to see Col. Harper." The Col. arose and unlocked the 
 door, seated himself on the bed, and laid his sword and pistols 
 before him. In stepped four men. " Step one inch over that 
 mark," said the Colonel, " and you are dead men." After talk- 
 ing a little time with him they left the room. He again secur- 
 ed the door, and sat on his bed till daylight appeared. He then 
 ordered his horse, mounted and rode for Albany, and the enemy 
 were round the house. An Indian followed him almost into Al- 
 bany, taking to his heels when the Colonel wheeled and pre- 
 sented his pistol. Next morning the Schoharie people heard a 
 tremendous shrieking and yelling, and looking out, saw the en- 
 terprising partisan amongst the enemy with a troop of horse. — 
 The men in the Fort rushed out, and the country was soon 
 cleared of the whole crew of marauders. 
 
 The narrow limits allowed to this portion of the volume, warn 
 that no lurther space can be occupied with a detail of the inci- 
 dents of the Border Wars of New York. In 1779, Gen. Sulli- 
 van made his well known expedition into the territory of the 
 Indians. During the remaining years of the war the frontiers 
 were sorely harrassed. Bands of savages and loyalists incessan- 
 tly emerged from the forests to ravage, burn and kill. And if 
 they succeeded in bringing dreadful misery upon the homes of 
 the borderers, it was not without resolute resistance on the part 
 of the latter. Under the lead of Willett, the Harpers and other 
 partisans not less sagacious than determined, the marauders of- 
 ten felt to their discomfiture the rifles of the frontiers ; and the 
 well authenticated traditions of individual daring and adven- 
 ture, rival in interest the annals of knight-errantry. 
 
 Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, emigration be- 
 gan to penetrate Western New York from three quarters. Penn- 
 sylvanians, particularly inhabitants of the region of Wyom- 
 ing, pushed up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where, diverg- 
 ing, some made settlements along the Chemung and Canisteo, 
 
2§9 
 
 T^hile others established themselves on the East branch of the 
 Susquehanna and its tributaries. Adventurers from the East, 
 crossing trom New England or the Hudson river counties to 
 Unadilla, dropped down the river in canoes and settled along 
 the Susquehanna or Chemung, or travelled into the upper Ge- 
 nesee country. Yet another band took the ancient road through 
 the Mohawk valley to Oneida Lake, then on to Canadesaga. 
 
 In May, 1784, Hugh White passing the boundary of civiliza- 
 tion settled at VVhitestown, near Utica. In the same year James 
 Dean settled at Rome. In 1786, a Mr. Webster, became the 
 first white settler of the territory now comprised in the county 
 of Onondaga. In 1788, Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler, loca- 
 ted at Onondaga Hollow. In 1793, John L. Hardenburgh set- 
 tled on the site of the city of Auburn. In 1789, James Bennett 
 and John Harris established a ferry at Cayuga Lake. In 1787, 
 Jemima Wilkinson's disciples made their first settlement on the 
 outlet ol Crooked Lake, one mile South of the present village of 
 Dresden. On their arrival at Geneva from the East they found, 
 says a local historian, but a solitary log house, and that not fin- 
 ished, inhabited by one Jennings. 
 
 After the purchase of Phelps and Gorham, of their Western 
 estate, Mr. Phelps selected the site at the foot of Canandaigua 
 Lake as the central locality in his purchase, and the village of 
 Canandaigua received its first settler in the spring of 1789. Ma- 
 ny others followed during the same season, and in the August 
 ensuing the new village was described as being " full of people 
 residents, surveyors, explorers, adventurers. Houses were going 
 up — it was a busy, thriving place." 
 
 In the foil of 1788, Kanadesaga (now Geneva,) is described 
 'as having become " a pretty brisk place, the focus of specula- 
 tors, explorers, the Lessee Company and their agents, and the 
 principal seat oJ the Indian trade for a wide region. Horatio 
 Jones, {the Interpreter,) was livng in a log house covered with 
 bark on the bank of the lake, and had a small stock of goods for 
 the Indian trade. Asa Ransom, (the afterwards Pioneer of 
 Buffalo.) occupied a hut and was manufacturing Indian trink- 
 ets. Lark Jennings had a log tavern and trading establishment 
 covered with bark on the Lake shore, which was occupied by 
 Dr. Benton. There was a cluster of log houses all along on the 
 low ground near the Lake." In 1794, Col. Williamson having 
 assumed the agency of the Pulteney Estate, began improvements 
 at Geneva by the erection of the Geneva Hotel. " It was com- 
 pleted in December and opened with a grand ball, which furn* 
 ished a memorable epoch in the early history of the Genesee 
 
290 
 
 country. The hotel was talked of far iand wide as a Wonderful 
 enterprise, and such it really was." In the same year Col. W. 
 began his improvements at Sodus. By this time or in a few 
 years later, nearly all the principal towns between Seneca Lake 
 and the Genesee river in the northern district of the purchase, 
 had received their first few settlers. 
 
 In the meantime the valleys of the Susquehanna and its 
 tributaries, had been penetrated by adventurers from the South 
 and East. In the year 1787, Capt. Joseph Leonard moving up 
 the S«s<|uehanna in a canoe with his family from Wyoming, 
 made the first permanent settlement at Binghamton. In the 
 same year Col. Rose, Joshua Whitney, and a tew others, settled 
 in the same vicinity. The settlement at Wattles' Ferry, (now 
 Unadilla village,) a well known locality in the early days, had 
 been made sometime previous. 
 
 The Indian settlement at Oquago, (now Windsor,) as has 
 been stated before, was of long standing. For a few years pre- 
 vious to the French War of 1756, an Indian mission had been 
 established there, at the instance of the elder President Ed- 
 wards. A small colony of emigrants made a settlement at this 
 place in 1785. In the same year James MclMaster made the 
 first settlement at Owego. Tioga Point is said to have been set- 
 tled as early as 1780, but this seems incredible, unless the first 
 residents were Tories. The pioneers of the Chemung Valley 
 were principally Wyoming people, originally from Connecticut. 
 Col. John Handy was the pioneer at Elmira, settling there ia 
 1788. 
 
 The Chemung Valley enjoyed some fame before the arrival of 
 the pioneers. John Miller, Enoch Warner, John Squires, Abi- 
 jah Patterson, Abner Wells, and others, are given as the names 
 of pioneers of the valley at Elmira and its vicinity; besides Leb- 
 beu3 Hammond, of Wyoming, renowned for personal prowess 
 above most of the men of the border. A notice of the settle- 
 ments of Chemung, Canisteo and Conhocton, has been given in 
 the preceding portions of this volume. 
 
 The brief time allowed for the preparation of this sketch, and 
 the unparalleled confusion of the otherwise valuable works from 
 which our facts must be derived, will compel a random notice 
 of the time of commencing the principal settlements remaining 
 unnoticed. Rev. Andrew Gray and Major Mo.ses Van Campen, 
 with a small colony, settled at Almond, Allegany county, in 
 1796. Judge Church, of Angelica, not long afterward, began 
 the settlement of Genesee Valley in the same county. William 
 and James Wadsworth, emigrated to their fine estate at Big 
 Tree or Genesee from Connecticut, in 1790. 
 
291 
 
 Tt was till about the year 1798, that the State Road from Uti^ 
 ca to the Genesee River at Avon, by way of Cayuga Ferry and 
 Canandaigua, was completed. In 1799, a stage passed over this 
 road in three days. In iSOO, a road was made from Avon to 
 (rartson'5, now Le Roy. For many years this old Buffalo Road 
 was the centre of settlement. The wide belt of dark, wet 
 forest, which extended along the shore of Lake Ontario from 
 Sodus to Niagara, formed a strong-hold of pestilence, which few 
 dared to venture into. Not even the unmatched hydraulic ad- 
 vantages of the Genesee Falls, could tempt the speculator to 
 encounter the fevers that there unnerved the arm of enterprise. 
 'It is true that as early as 1790, '• Indian Allen," a demi-savage 
 renegade fromi Nev; Jersey, resuming a sort of civilization after 
 the Revolutionary war. erected mills at these falls on a certain 
 "one hundred acre tract" given him for that purpose by Mr. 
 Phelps, but it seems that the enterprise was premature. — 
 Other mills alon-j; the Tme of settlement engrossed the custom, 
 and the solitary miller had hardly employment enough to keep 
 his mill in repair. Sometimes it was wholly abandoned, and 
 the chance customer put the mill in motion, ground his own grist, 
 and departed through the forest. In 18 10, however, settlements 
 having been made in the Lake district, abridge was built across 
 the Genesee at this point, and in the following year Col. Na- 
 thaniel Rochester, with two associates Cols. Fitzhugh and Carrol, 
 had become the proprietors of Allen's lot, laid out a village plot 
 and sold several lots. Thus was founded the city of Rochester. 
 In 1817, it was incorporated a village with the name of Roches- 
 terville. In 1834, it received its city charter. 
 
 The Holland Company purchased their great estate west of 
 the Genesee of Robert Morris, in 1-792, and 1793. Mr. Joseph 
 Ellicott, of Maryland, the first agent of this Company, and for 
 many years a prominent citizen, arrived in Western New York, 
 in 1797. In 1801, Batavia was founded under his auspices. — 
 In 1798, there was an insignificant huddle of log houses, not a 
 dozen in all, on the site of the present city of Buffalo. The 
 possession of the lands at the mouth of Buffalo creek, long a fa- 
 vorite place of rendezvous of the Indians, was deemed of impor- 
 tance by Mr. Ellicott, and on purchasing it, plotted there the 
 village of New Amsterdam, with its Schimmelpinninck, Stadtnit- 
 JBki, and VoUenhoven Avenues. 
 
SETTLER-LTFE. 
 
 The Editor has had in his possession a manuscript sketch of 
 Settler-life, of much value for its exactness and particularity of 
 detail, prepared several years since by a gentleman of accurate 
 observation and most just sympathies, himself in early life a 
 woods-man and a true lover of nature, and always a hearty friend 
 of the pioneer. It was expected that liberal extracts from this 
 manuscript might have been given, but being unexpectedly cur- 
 tailed in space, we can present but a passage or two. 
 
 A settler's home. 
 
 "As I was travelling through the county on horseback on a 
 summer day in an early year of settlement, I fell in compa- 
 ny with two gentlemen, who were going in the same direction. 
 One of them was the land Agent from Bath, who was going to 
 the Genesee river, the-other was a foreigner on his way from 
 Easton, in Pennsylvania, to Presqae Isle, (now Erie) on Lake 
 Erie. We had followed in Indian jBle a mere path through 
 the woods for several miles, passing at long intervals a log house 
 where the occupants had just made a beginning ; when having 
 passed the outskirts of settlement and penetrated deep into the 
 woods, our attention was attracted by the tinkling of a cow 
 bell, and the sound of an axe in chopping. VVe soon saw a lit- 
 tle break in the forest, and a log house. As we approached we 
 heard the loud barking of a dog, and as we got near the clear- 
 ing were met by him with an angry growl as if he would have- 
 said, " You can come no further without my masters permis- 
 sion." A shrill whistle from within called ofi the dog. We pro- 
 ceeded to the house. A short distance from it, standing on the 
 fallen trunk of a large hemlock tree, which he had just chop- 
 ped once in two, was a fine looking young man foui* or five and 
 twenty years of age, with an axe in his hand. He was dress* 
 ed in a tow-frock and trowsers, with his head and feet bare. 
 The frock, open at the top, showed that he wore no shirt, and 
 exhibited the muscular shoulders aad full chest of a very ath- 
 
SOS 
 
 letic and powerful man. When we stopped our horses he step' 
 ped off the log, shook hands with the agent, and saluting us 
 frankly, asked us to dismount and rest ourselves, urging that 
 the distance to the next house was six miles, with nothing but 
 marked trees to guide us a part of the way; that it was nearly 
 noon, and although he could not promise us anything very good 
 to eat, yet he could give us something to prevent us from suffer- 
 ing with hunger. He had no grass growing yet, but he would 
 give the horses some green oats. We concluded to accept the 
 invitation and dismounted and went into the house. 
 
 "Before describing the house I will notice the appearance of 
 things around it, premising that the settler had begun his ira^ 
 provements in the spring before our arrival. A little boy about 
 three years old was playing with the dog, which though so reso- 
 lute at our approach, now permitted the child to push him over 
 and sit down upon him. A pair of oxen and a cow with a bell 
 on, were lying in the shade of the woods; two or three hogs 
 were rooting in the leaves near the cattle, and a few fowls were 
 scratching the soil. There was a clearing, or rather chopping 
 around the house of about four acres, half of which had been 
 cleared off and sowed with oats, which had grown very rank 
 and good. The other half of the chopping had been merely 
 burnt over and then planted with corn and potatoes, a hill be- 
 ing planted wherever there was room between the logs. The 
 corn did not look very well. The chopping was enclosed with 
 a log fence. A short distance from the house a fine spring of 
 water gushed out of the gravel bank, from which a small brook 
 ran down across the clearing, along the borders of which a few 
 geese were feeding. 
 
 " When we entered the house the young settler said, "Wife, 
 here is the land-agent and two other men,"' and turning to us 
 said, " This is my wife." She was a pretty looking young wo- 
 man dressed in a coarse loose dress, and bare footed. VVhen 
 her husband introduced us, she was a good deal embarrassed, 
 and the flash of her dark eyes and the crimson glow that passed 
 over her countenance, showed that she was vexed at our intru- 
 sion. The young settler observed her vexation and said, " Nev- 
 er mind Sally, the Squire (so he called the agent) knows how 
 people have to live in the woods." She regained her composure 
 in a moment and greeted us hospitably, and without any apolo- 
 gies for her house or her costume. After a few minutes conver- 
 sation, on the settler's suggesting that he had promised " these 
 men something to eat to prevent their getting hungry," she be- 
 gan to prepare the frugal meal. VVhen we first entered the 
 
20i 
 
 house she sat near the door, spinning flax on a little wheel, and 
 a baby was lying near her in a cradle formed of the bark of a 
 birch tree, which resting like a trough on rockers, made a very 
 smooth, neat little cradle. While the settler and his other 
 guests were engaged in conversation, I took notice of the house 
 and furniture. The house was about 20 by 26 feet, constructed 
 of round logs cliinked with pieces of split logs, and plastered on 
 the outside with clay. The floors were made of split logs with 
 the flat side up ; the door, of thin pieces split out of a large log, 
 and the roof of the same. The windows were holes unprotected 
 by glass or sash ; the fire place was made of stone, and the chim- 
 ney, of sticks and clay. On one side of the fire phice was a lad- 
 der leading to the chamber. There was a bed in one corner of 
 the room, a table and five or six chairs, and on one side a few 
 shelves of split boards, on which were a few articles of crockery 
 and some tm-ware, and on one of them a few books. Behind 
 the door was a large spinning wheel and a reel, and over head 
 on wooden hooks fastened to the beams were a number of things, 
 among which were a nice rifle, powder horn, bullet pouch; toma- 
 hawk and hunting knife — the complete equipment of the hun- 
 ter and the frontier settler. Every thing looked nice and tidy, 
 even to the rough stones which had been laid down for a hearth. 
 
 " In a short time our dinner was ready. It consisted of corn 
 bread and milk, eaten out of tin basins with iron spoons. The 
 settler ate with us, but his wife was employed while we were at 
 dinner in sewing on what appeared to be a child's dress. The 
 settler and the agent talked all the time, generally on the sub- 
 ject of the settlement of the country. After dinner the latter 
 and his companion took their departure, the one making the lit- 
 tle boy a present of a half dollar, and the pther giving the same- 
 sum to the baby. 
 
 " I have now introduced to the reader one of the best and 
 most intelligent among the first settlers of the county. He was. 
 a man of limited information, except as to what related to hia 
 own particular business;, but his judgment was good, and he 
 was frank, candid and fearless. He belonged to that class of 
 men who distinguished themselves as soldiers dnring our Revo- 
 lutionary War, and who were in many instances the descend- 
 ants of the celebrated " bold yeomanry of oli England," whose 
 praises were commemorated by the English bard when he 
 Tyrote, 
 
 " Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 
 A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; 
 But a bold yeomanry, their country's pride, 
 When once destroyed, can never be supplied.'* 
 
29§ 
 
 TfHE FRIENDLINESS OF THE PIONEERS. 
 
 "The social relations and neighborly intercourse of the set- 
 tlers were of the most kind and friendly character, and proved 
 the truth of the common saying that 'people were much more 
 friendly in new countries than they were in the old settlements.' 
 It was no uncommon thing among them to comply literally with 
 the injunction of scripture which requires us to give to him 
 that asketh and from him that would borrow to turn not away.' 
 Their kindness and sympathy to and for each other was indeed 
 most extraordinary, and showed a degree of sensibility which 
 we look for in vain in a more cultivated and enlightened state 
 of society. At the commencement of the sugar-making perhaps, 
 some one in the settlement would cut his l^^g badly with an axe, 
 making a deep and gliasUy wound, which would render him a 
 cripple for weeks and periuips for months. The neighbors 
 would assemble, tliat is, make a bee and do all his work as far 
 as it could be done at that time, and then, by arrangement 
 among themselves, one man would go every afternoon and 
 gather the sap. carrying it to the house where it could be boiled 
 up by the settler's wife. Again, one would be taken sick in 
 harvest time : his neighbors would make a hee, harvest and 
 secure his crops, when, at the same time, their own grain very 
 likely would be going to waste for want of gathering. In seed 
 time a man's ox would perhaps be killed by the falling of 
 a tree : the neighbors would come with their teams and drag in 
 his wheat when they had not yet sowed their own. A settler's 
 house would be accidentally burned down — his family would be 
 provided for at the nearest neighbors, and all would turn out 
 and build and finish a house in a day or two so that the man 
 could take his family into it. Instances like these, in which the 
 settlers exibited their kindness and sympathy for each other 
 might be extended indefinitely, but we have referred to a suffi- 
 cient number to show the kindness and good feeling that existed 
 among them." 
 
 / 
 
 A REMINISCENCE. 
 
 "For the purpose of showing how much time and labor it 
 required in many cases for the first settlers to procure even the 
 most common articles of food, I will state what has been related 
 to me by one of the most respectable and intelligent of the first 
 settlers of Dansville.* He stated that when he first settled in 
 
 *TKe late Jud^e iffawnojid, gf JIammopdsport, 
 
20ij 
 
 that town, it was very difficult to procure provisions of any 
 kind ; and there was no grain to be had any where but of tho 
 Indians, at Squaky Hiil, who had corn, which they would sell 
 for a silver dollar a bushel. In order to get some corn for 
 bread— his supply having become exhausted— he went several 
 miles to a place where a wealthy man was making large im- 
 provements and employed a good many hands. He chopped for 
 him four days, for which he received two dollars. He then 
 worked one day for another man to pay for the use of a horse, 
 and on the nest day started for the Indian Villaa;e, a distance 
 of fifteen or twenty miles, where he got two bushels of corn for 
 his two dollars. 1 he corn had been kept by the Indians tied 
 up in bunches by the husks, and hung around the walls of their 
 cabin, and was very black and dirty, covered with soot and 
 ashes. He took the corn home and his wife washed it clean 
 ■with a good deal of labor and dried it so that it could be ground. 
 He then got the horse another day, and carried the corn to mill, 
 twelve or fifteen miles, and was fortunate enough to get it 
 ground and reach home the same day. Here we see that it 
 took seven days work of the settler to get the meal of two 
 bushels of corn. The old gentleman's eye kindled when he 
 related these circumstances, and he said tliat the satisfaction 
 and happiness he felt when sitting by the fire and looking at 
 the bag full of meal standing in the corner of his log house, far 
 surpassed what he experienced at any other time in the acquis!^ 
 tion of property, although he became in time the owner of a 
 large farm, with a large stock of horses, cattle, and sheep, and 
 all the necessary implements of a substantial and wealthy- 
 far mer." 
 
 THE VILLAGE OF CORNING.* 
 
 Corning owes its existence and prosperity to no original Sttpe-- 
 riority of location over neighboring villages, but has sprung up 
 to a thriving and commanding position by having become the 
 centre of great public improvements. The history of these is 
 the history of the place. 
 
 By the construction of the Chemung Canal this point was 
 made an inland termination of navigable communication with 
 the Hudson river and the ocean. It was consequently tho point 
 from which the products of the forest, the field, and the river, for 
 a vast extent of country were destined to seek a market. The 
 
 *Prepared for this volume by a correspondeijj. 
 
297 
 
 sagacious enterprise of a few capitalists pointed to it as the 
 future centre of an extensive commerce. 
 
 The extensive mines of bituminous coal, at Blossburgh, in 
 the state of Pennsylvania, had early attracted attention, and 
 shortly aUer the completion of the Chemung canal two corpo- 
 rations, one of which had been created by the state of Pennsyl- 
 vania, to construct a slack water navigation from Blossburg to 
 the state line, and the other by the State of New York, to 
 continue the same to Elmira, were authorized by their respective 
 states to build railroads connecting at the state line, and in this 
 state, extending to a point at or near the termination of the 
 Chemung canal 
 
 The work of constructing these railroads was commenced in 
 1836, and at the same time an association of gentlemen now 
 known as the Corning Company, having purchased a large tract 
 of land on both sides of the Chemung river, and laying out streets 
 and lots, made a beginning of the future village of Corning by 
 the erection of a large hotel called the '-Corning House." The 
 Corning and Blossburg railroad was completed and put into 
 operation in 1840. About the same time the work of building 
 the New York and Erie railroad which passes through the village 
 was commenced in the vicinity and prosecuted vigorously till 
 the suspension of the work, in 1842. The Bank of Corning, 
 with a capital of $104,000, had been organized and put in 
 operation, in 1839. So rapid was the growth of the village, 
 that the population amounted in 1841 to 900. 
 
 Here its prosperity was for a time arrested. The commercial 
 revolutions wdiich paralyzed enterprise and industry everywhere 
 were felt with peculiar severity here. The work upon the New 
 York and Erie railroad which had drawn together a considerable 
 population, was suspended. The property of the Corning and 
 Blossburg railroad was seized by creditors. The price of lumber, 
 the great staple of the country, would hardly pay the cost of 
 manufacture. Large quantities of coal lay upon the bank of 
 the river and in eastern markets, wanting purchasers. Bank- 
 ruptcy was almost universal, and the resources of industry were 
 almost entirely cut off. 
 
 Notwithstanding these drawbacks to the prosperity of the 
 village, the advantages of its position and the hopeful energies 
 of its citizens did not suffer the relapse to continue long. — 
 After a while the demand for coal increased and the market 
 enlarged. Improved prices of lumber stimulated its manufac- 
 ture, and larger quantities were brought here for shipment. 
 The place becapie the centre of a heavy trade, and capitt^J 
 
293 
 
 sought investment in manufactures. In 1848 the village was 
 incorporated under the general law, containing at the time 1700 
 inhabitants. 
 
 In the mean time the vrork of building the Erie railroad was 
 resumed, and on the first day of January, 1850, was opened a 
 direct railway communication with the city of New York. The 
 elements of prosperity seemed complete. 
 
 But there were elements to contend with of an adverse and 
 direful character. On the eighteenth day of May, 1850, occur- 
 red a fire, more extended and disastrous in proportion to the 
 size of the place, than has often, if ever happened elsewhere. 
 The entire business part of the village, comp)ising nearly one 
 hundred buildings, with large quantities of lumber, was in a 
 few hours laid in ashes. Yet the disaster was so common and 
 universal — misfortune had so many companions — there were so 
 many to share theloss that the burden seemed to be scarcely 
 felt. The embers had not cooled before shanties of rough boards 
 supplied the place of stores, and for months almost the entire 
 business was carried on in places, neither secure from summer 
 rains or thieves. In the mean time the work of rebuilding was 
 going on, and in no long time substantial and splendid buildings 
 again occupied the place of the ruins. 
 
 In the year 1852 was opened the first section of the BuiFalo, 
 Corning and New York railroad, having its eastern terminus at 
 Corning. The rerrainder of the line to Bufi"alo, wilU be in 
 operation in the course of 1853. The Corning and Blossburg 
 railroad also was relaid with a new and heavy rail and newly 
 equipped throughout. 
 
 The annual exports of coal and lumber are forty thousand 
 tons of the former, and fifty million feet of the latter. In its 
 canal commerce, Corning is the fifth port in the state. 
 
 In new villages and settlements, schools and churches are apt 
 to receive but secondary attention. In Corning its Union School 
 of four or five hundred scholars has maintained a not inferior 
 rank, and its five Churches give evidence of some considerable 
 attention to morals and religion. 
 
 The population is now not far from three thousand, and the 
 sanguine predict an increase vastly more rapid in future than it 
 has been in forpaer years. 
 
 THE GREAT WINDFALI,. 
 
 The first stable in the town of Bath was literally "put 
 pp by a whirlwind." In 1791, or about that time, a destructiy^ 
 
290 
 
 Iiurricane swept over the land. Judge Baker in after years 
 took pains to collect information of the movements of this great 
 "northern fanatic," and was of the opinion that its path from 
 Lake Erie to the Atlantic was about ninety miles in breadth, 
 and that the northern limit of its agitation in this county was 
 at the upper town line of Urbana. A more violent '-agitator' 
 never passed through the land. Thousands of acres of forest 
 were prostrated, and the frightful windfalls, briar-grown and 
 tangled, which settlers afterwards found in this county were 
 the eSects of this ''inj&ammatory appeal" to the weak brethren 
 of the wilderness. We have met a veteran farmer who was a 
 child at the time when the tornado passed, and liappened on 
 that day to be left by his parents to take care of still younger 
 children, and rememljers hiding in^ hole in the ground with 
 his little brothers Avhile the forest was filled with the terrific 
 roar of falling pines. 
 
 Mr. Jonathan Cook, an early settler at Painted Post, was 
 driving a pack horse laden with provisions to Pleasant Valley 
 where Phelps and Gorham"s surveyors were at work, and was 
 near the mouth of Smith's creek, on the Conhocton, when the 
 storm struck him. He took refuge ander an oak tree, while the 
 wind, sweeping furiously up the ravine, uprooted the maples, 
 twisted branches from the trees and scattered them in the air 
 like wisps of hay. A whirling gust caught the cluster under 
 which he was standing. The oak beneath which he had taken 
 refuge was prostrated, but he himself fell with his face to the 
 .ground and escaped unhurt. His horse however met with a 
 strange catastrophe. The whirhvind tore up several large trees 
 and imprisoned the unfortunate animal in a cage so impregnable 
 that the driver was unable to extricate him, but was obliged to 
 go over to the surveyors' camp and get men to return with axes 
 and make a breach in the walls of the stable. This was rather 
 a rough joke, even for a whirlwind, but the horse was but little 
 hurt. 
 
 THE SETTLERS OF DANSVILLE. 
 
 (The notice of the settlement of the town of Dansville origi- 
 nally prepared for this work was accidentally lost. At. this 
 time it is impossible to supply the names of the settlers in the 
 southern part of the town, furnished by Wm. C. Rogers, Esq., 
 of Rogersville. The village of Dansville falling within the 
 province of the author of the History of Phelps and Gorham's 
 
300 
 
 Purchase^ a brief notice of the settlers of that portion of the old 
 town, formerly a part of Steuben county is condensed from that 
 valuable and copious work.) The first settler upon the site of 
 the village of Dansville, was Neil McCoy. He came from 
 Painted Post and located where his step-son, James jVlcCurdy, 
 who came in with him, now resides. The family was four days 
 making the journey from Painted Post, camping out two nights 
 on the way. To raise their log-house, help came from Bath, 
 Geneseo and Mount Morris, with Indians from Squaky Hill 
 and Gardeau. During the first season, it is mentioned that 
 Mrs. McCoy, hearing of the arrival of Judge Hurlburfs family 
 at Arkpoi't, eleven miles distant, resolved as an act of backwoods 
 courtesy to make the first call. Taking her son with her, she 
 made the journey through the woods by marked trees, dined 
 with her new neighbors, and returned in time to do her milking 
 after a walk of twenty- two miles. 
 
 Amariah Hammond Esq., a widely known pioneer of the town 
 who died at a venerable age in the winter of 1850. "coming in 
 to explore, slept two nights under a pine tree on the premises 
 he afterwards purchased. Early in the spring of 1796 he 
 removed his young family from Bath to this place ; his wife and 
 infant child on horseback, his household goods and farming 
 utensils on a sled drawn by four oxen, and a hired man driving 
 the cattle." 
 
 Captain Daniel P. Faulkner was an early property holder 
 and spirited citizen of the town in the palmy days of Col. 
 Williamson, and from his familiar appellative, "Captain Daji" 
 the village took its name. In 1798 Jacob Welch, Jacob Martz, 
 Conrad Martz, Georp;e Shirey and Frederick Barnhart emi- 
 grated to Dansville with their families. They came up the 
 Conhocton valley, and were three days on the road from Bath, 
 camping out two nights. At the arrival of this party the 
 names of the settlers already on the ground besides those before 
 named were Mr. Phenix. Jam>^s Logan, David SchoU, John 
 Vanderwenter, Jared Erwin, William Perine. Col. Nathaniel 
 Rochester became a resident of Dansville in 1810. 
 
 The settlement of the southern part of this town was not 
 commenced till about the year 1816. Of the settlers in that 
 district we can only recall the names of Messrs. Wm. C. Ro- 
 gers and Jonas Bridge. In the year 1816 (or about that time) 
 Mr. Rogers, on arriving in the vicinity of the present village of 
 Rogersville, found the merest handful of settlers in all that 
 quarter. At this day the wilderness has given place to a pleas- 
 ant village with an academy of substantial worth, surrounded 
 by a thriving farming country. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Notice of the Topograj)hy and Geology of Steuben County, 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Preliminary History : Purchase : Title. ,,,,.... 13 
 
 CHAPTER li. 
 
 Steuben County immediately previous to its Settlement. A jour- 
 ney sixty-five years ago : the Forest : the Rivers. &c. : Benja- 
 min Patterson the Hunter : Skirmish at Freeland's Fort : Scuf- 
 fle with the Intei'preter : the wild Ox of Genesee, 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The settlements made under the purchase by Phelps and Gorham. 
 The old town of Painted Post : origin of the name : the first set- 
 tlers : the settlement of the upper valley of the Canisteo : the 
 Canisteo Flats : life in the Canisteo Valley : a wrestling match ■ 
 Captain John : old Enemies : Van Campen and Mohawk : a dis- 
 comfited savage : capture of a saw-mill : the lower Canisteo val- 
 ley : the Tioga valley : Col. Lindley : a Deerslayer immortal- 
 ized, 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The great Air-Castle : the London Association : Captain William- 
 son : Northumberland: the German Colony : the passage of the 
 Germans through the Wilderness : terrors and tribulations ; a 
 "" Parisian scene." 82 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The settlement of Bath : consolatory reflections : Serpents : JVar- 
 rative of General McClure: character of the Settlers: early 
 citizens, the Caraerons, Andrew Smith, &c. : an auto-biography : 
 Emigration : the wilderness : settlers at Mud Creek : Bath : 
 Captain Williamson : a canoe-voyage : Building : Speculation : 
 navigation of the Rivers : business fortunes and misfortunes : 
 Crooked Lake navy : a portly and able bodied gentleman extin- 
 guished : Indian traffic : River navigation : conclusion of the 
 Narrative, 104 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Captain Williamson's administration : life at Bath : grand Simcoe 
 War: Races: Theatre: vindication of the ancients: Bath Ga^ 
 iette : County Newspapers t the Bar : Physicians .14? 
 
30^ 
 
 CHAPTER Vli: 
 
 Settlement of Pleasant Valley : Frederickton, including Wayne, 
 Tyrone and Reading : Prattsburgh : Wheeler : Pulteney : How- 
 ard : Hornby : Conhocton : the towns south of the Canisteo : Or- 
 ange : Campbell : Avoca : Way land, 217 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Air-Castle vanishing : close of Col. Williamson's career : his 
 character, 205 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Steuben County since the period of settlement : disasters : pro- 
 gress : prospects : the citizens and the land proprietors,. . . .217 
 
 CHAPTER OF. MISCELLANIES. 
 
 The Indians : incidents : Indian names, &c. : Game, &c. : deer : 
 wolves: panthers: bears: beaver: " snake stories :" anecdotes 
 of the cliase : the " Plumping Mill :" Incidents of the War of 
 1812 : the Militia : the Steuben Company at the battle of Queens- 
 ton Heights : the lighting Chief Justice : an incident: the "Bat- 
 tle of Dansville." 241 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Organization of Steuben County, and statistical tables, 279 
 
 Sketch of General History of settlement in Western New York,282 
 
 Settler-Life, 292 
 
 The village of Corning, 296 
 
 The " Great Windfall" of 1791, 298 
 
 The Settlers of Dansville, 299 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 On page 10, for Canistes ^^ad Canisteo, 
 
 On page 14, for Scandinarian read Scandinavian. 
 
 On page 21, for weary woodsmen read wary woodsmen. 
 
 On page 89, for Tarathmel read Jarathmel. 
 
 On page 84, for beating read boating. 
 
 On page 89, for town in 3d line read towns. 
 
 On page 90, for Shemokinn read Shemokam. 
 
 On page 94, for cougars read cougars. 
 
 On pa^^^e 199, for Ketchers read Ketches. 
 
 HDn page 218, for frugal read feudal. 
 
303 
 
 PREPARING FOR BA TTLE. 
 
 A PIONEER, MEETING AN OLD SETTLEJ^, 
 
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY. 
 
 This book, (now in course of publication,) is one of de**|i 
 interest lo the gfeneral reader, nnd more particularly valua» 
 ble to the descendants and family connections of the 
 
 FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 The story of their ADVENTURES, PRIVATIONS. 
 DARING, and HARDIKOOD, should be perpetuated, and 
 this hook will present a suitable memorial of their livea, 
 worthy of being treasured up in every fsimily. 
 
 The general History of the County, Notices of the First 
 Settlements, and subsequent Improvement, Biographical 
 Sketches, Anecdotes, <f-c., will combine to make it a book cf 
 the highest interest. [H/^ The book will contain notices of 
 more than One Hundred of the Pioneers who made the fir«t 
 •learinnr in this county. ^ 
 
 N. B.— It is intended to enlarge this book by adding mir 
 biographical notices of families, when such can be obtained, 
 the difficulty of obtaining full information has been iDftik 
 fxrcater than could reasonably be supposed. 
 
 YOUNG MEN can secure , ^nod comp...«. 
 
 tion by taking lowns or larg^f 
 sections, and procuring subscribers for the History of Ste#. 
 ben County. Ten or fifteen dollars ready cash is all thitt 
 will be required to start with. Call soon; first come, fini»t 
 wrved. R. L. UNDERHILL & C^ 
 
306 
 
 /Am ^^"^ Mm^ Fm Ml: ^M 
 
 Cap and SiCttcr Paper, from various celebra- 
 ted manufactories in the Eastern States, also English and 
 French — very superior qualities, and very cheap — some as 
 low as $1.50 per reann. 
 
 Mole Paper, of beautiful patterns — for Invitations, 
 &c., also, Commercial Note Paperj or business paper, of the 
 very best quality. "^ 
 
 Eaivelopes. — Business and Law Envelopes, of all 
 qualities and styles. Wafers, Wax, Tape, Sand, Blotting 
 Paper, Rulers, Steel Pens, Inkstands, Calendars, Clasps, 
 Paper Weights, 
 
 Drawing Pencils in Boxes, Office Pencils, Carpenter's Pen- 
 eils, Red Crayons, &c. 
 
 Bagley's celebrated manufactury, also some at reiy low 
 prices. 
 
 BKAWIMCJ MATERIALS. 
 
 Monochromatic Board, Crayons, Stumps, ^c, Bristol 
 Board, Drawing Paper, Crayon Paper, &c. 
 
 Pocket Maps, Outline Maps for Schools, Maps for the 
 Offiee or House on rollers. 
 
307 
 
 A new edition of Walter Scott's celebrated Novels, is 
 now in course of publication. They are printed on fine pa- 
 per, with large clear type, and are sold at 50 cents each. — 
 The following are now ready. 
 
 Waverly, Guy Mannering, Antiquary, Rob Roy, Black 
 Dwarf, and Old Mortality, Heart of Mid Lothian, Bride of 
 Lammermoor, and Legend of Montrose. 
 
 Psychology, fee. — A. J. Davis' works, Dod's Lectures, 
 Celestial Telegraph, and other Works upon Spiritual Mani- 
 festations, now on hand. New works of this character as 
 soon as published. 
 
 SurfDAY School Libraries. — These books, also, Ques- 
 tions and Hymns, &c. are furnished at the Bath Bookstore 
 at the Prices, as advertised in the catalogues of the Am. S. 
 S. Union. Lots of 100 volumes for $10, kept on hand. 
 
 Abbott's Biographies. — This series of well written books, 
 interessing to young or old, inc)udes the following. 
 Julius CjBsar, Alfred the Great, 
 
 Hannibal, Maria Antoinette, * 
 
 Josephine, Charls 1st, 
 
 Xerxes, Charles 2d, 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, Cyrus the Great, 
 
 Darius the Great, Mary Queen of Scots, 
 
 William, the Conqueror, Madame Roland, Cleopatra. 
 
 Ilistorical Works. 
 
 Gibbons' Rome, Rollins History, 
 
 Hume's England, Macauley's England, 
 
 Josephus, D'Aubigne's Reformation, 
 
 And other valuable Historical works at the lowest prices. 
 
308 
 
 House Builders. 
 
 Will be furnished to order, by R. L. Underbill, at shore 
 wotice, with a variety of ornamental articles of Iron, of 
 Composition material, such as Cornice Moulding, Entabla- 
 tures, Linte'ls, Sills, Consoles Brackets, Capitals of Corin- 
 thian or other orders. Chimney Tops, <f-c. All these are 
 suitable for Stone, Brick, or wood buildings. Also, Com- 
 positfon mouldings, for inside work, such as Panel Moulds 
 ings for Doors, Casings, &c., being cheap, duiable, and ele- 
 gant substitutes for stone or wood carving. 
 
 Marble Mantf.ls, carved or plain ; E^iameled Iron 
 Mantels, a perfect, and indestructible imitation of marblt\ 
 white or colored. Iron Columns, Fire Proof Shutters, Iroa 
 ^St{ituary, Railing for Cemetery lots, or Door yards, Stair, 
 Railing, Balconies, &c. 
 
 HOT AIR FUBNACES, &C., 
 
 Furnished of any size or pattern at prices according to 
 •ize, from S50, up. A very excellent Furnace to warna 
 one upper and one basement room, is furnished for $25. 
 
 Are You Married? Then provide for the future ne* 
 cessities of those you love. If they are dependant on your 
 labor, lay by a small part of your earnings — you can very 
 easily spare SIO or $20 a year ; this amount, if you are not 
 over 26 years old, will secure to your family $500 or $1000. 
 If you ara older, it will require a little more. Who will not 
 nave this trifl-^ for the welfare of his wife and children?-— 
 >ee Life Insurance advertisement. 
 
309 
 
 ■TO F'.A.I^lMCESDEl.S. 
 
 THE AMERICAN SHEPHERD, being a History cf 
 ♦he sheep, with their breeds, management and discasea^ 
 Barns, Sheds, Preparation of Wool for sale, &c., &c., 
 
 VouATT ON THE HoRSE — A large work including every- 
 thing relating to the Horse, and an essay on the Asa and 
 Mule. 
 
 Youatt on the Pig — Youatt on Sheep. 
 
 Culture of the Grape and Strawberry. 
 
 Farmer's Encyclopedia; a complete Dictionary of every 
 fhinc: relating to Agricultute. 
 
 Cole's Veterinarian. — The diseases of Domestic Aci- 
 mals, their Causes and Cure, 
 
 American Poulterer's Companion.— This book treats 
 «f the best method of raising and fattening all kinds of 
 Poultry, showing the profitable character of th« Businew. 
 
 Domestic Animals, by Allen. — Showing the best meth- 
 od of raising, fattening, and preparing for a profitable roar* 
 ket, including directions for the management of the Dairy. 
 
 Farmer's Hand Book. — Containing directions for pur- 
 chasing and clearing Land, plans of Buildings, Fences, g«ii* 
 ifal management of a farm, useful recipes, &c., &c. 
 
310 
 
 Skinner on Agricultitre. — Containing Contributions, 
 Essays, and Statistics from practical Farmers. 
 
 Thomas' Fueit Culturist. — A valuable work on the 
 Orchard, Nursery, &;c. 
 
 Barry's Fruit Garden. — Containing full directions for 
 Dwarf, and Pyramidal Trees, particularly applicable to gar- 
 dens and small grounds. 
 
 Hinds' Farrier. — The most popular book on this sub- 
 ject. It continues to be in good demand, notwithstanding 
 the multitude of new books. 
 
 Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry. — A very scientific 
 and popular work, which should be well studied by every 
 . Farmer. 
 
 These and many other new and popular books, worthy 
 the attention of the intelligent cultivator of the soil are sup- 
 plied at the Bath Bookstore. 
 
 NATIONAL LOAN FUND, 
 
 LIFE INSURANCE SOCIETY OF LONDON, 
 
 A savings bank for the benefit of the widow and the or- 
 phan. 
 
 (Empowered by Act of Parliment) 
 
 Capital £500,000 sterling, or $2,500,000 besides a reserved 
 fund (from surplus premiums) of about $185,000 
 
 This Institution embraces important and substantial ad- 
 vantages with respect to life assurances and deferred annui- 
 ties. The assured has, on all occasions, the power to bor- 
 row, tvithout expense or forfeiture Of the policy, two thirds 
 of the premiums paid ; also the option of selecting benefits, 
 and the conversion of his interests to meet either conveni- 
 ences or necessity. 
 
 Assurances for terms of years at the lowest possible rates. 
 
 Persons insured for life, can at once, borrow half the 
 amount of annual premium for five successive years, on 
 their own note and deposit of policy. 
 
311 
 
 Part of the capital is permanently invested in the United 
 States, in the names of the three local directors— as Trus- 
 tees — available always to the assured in case of disputed 
 claims (should any such arise) or otherwise. 
 
 The payment of premiums, half-yearly or quarterly, at a 
 trifling advance opon the annual rate. 
 
 Thirty days allowed after each payment of premium be- 
 comes due, without forfeiture of policy. 
 
 An act in respect to insurance of lives, for the benefit of 
 married women, passed by the Legislature of New York, 
 ist April, 1840. 
 
 Pamphlets, blank forms, table of rates, lists of agents, etc., 
 obtained from the agents throughout the United States, and 
 British North American Colohies. 
 
 R. L. UNDERHILL, Agent. 
 
 Eaptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and 
 other doctrinal books for sale at the usual rales. 
 
 American A-uthors. — Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Willis, 
 Sigourney, Prescott, Hawthorn, Stephens, and all other 
 writers of celebrity, whose works should be in every man's 
 Library, are furnished very low. 
 
 Or Life on a Farm — A most gra,phic picture of country 
 life. The author aims to convince men of the wisdom of 
 being contented with an honorable, useful, and productive 
 occupation. It is well written and highly interesting, 
 THE MASTER BUILDER, 
 
 Or Life at a Trade. Another work of the same charac- 
 ter, and of equal usefulness and interest. These books 
 should have a large circulation. 
 
 Hydropathy.— New publications furnished as soon 
 as published. 
 
313 
 
 FOR CARPENTERS. 
 
 Hill's Guide — The largest and most complete work of 
 ihe kind. 
 
 Benjamin's Architect — The old approved book best 
 adapted to ordinary practice. 
 
 Americav Architect — Containing numerous plans and 
 full details of the new styles of building. 
 
 American House Carpenter. — Plans and designs, fof 
 country houses, useful for Mechanics, ot those who ar» 
 forming plans for themselves. 
 
 Rural Architecture. — Being a complete description of 
 Farm Houses, Cottages, Out-Buildings, Gardens, Barns, 
 Sheds, &;c., ^c. 
 
 Arnot's Gothic Architecture — Containing all the rules, 
 and full details ap()licable to Dwellings. 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, 
 
 Violins, fronj $1, to SIO. Flutes, with 1 key up to 6. — 
 Guitars, irjm S2, to $30. Accordeons, fine and cheap.-— 
 Flutinas, much superior to Accordeons. 
 
 MELODEONS— The most desirable instrument for 
 •ocial music, and well suited for a Church Choir. 
 
 Flageolets. Fifes, Violin Strings, Bridges, Screws, Bows, 
 Bow Hair, Refineed Rosin, Clarionet Reeds, Accordeou 
 Reeds, Tuning Forks, and Instruction Books for all Instru- 
 ments. 
 
 PIANOS, from $200 up. 
 
 FOR THE LIBRARY. 
 
 Ship and Shore, Three Vears in California, Deck and 
 Port, Sea and Sailor, Land Lee. 
 
 The?e books, by Rev. Tho's Colton are very interesting, 
 aad are a very suitable addition to any Library. 
 
 HOMEOPATHIC BOOKS. 
 
 Hempel's Domestic Physician, Jahr's Manual, Hull's 
 Laurie, Marcy's Practice, Boeninghausen's Therapeutici, 
 
313 
 
 Hahneman's Organon, and all other books of this class fur- 
 tjished at the advertised prices of the publisher. 
 
 A variety of articles of entirely new style,— useful, con- 
 venient, and ornamental. We are malcing large additions 
 (to this branch of onr business, and all house-lceepers, new, 
 or old, will find something to suit them in our stock. 
 
 Gilt Cornices for Window Drapery. 
 
 Silk Loops, (rirnp Bands, Gilt Pins, &:c., for Drapery, 
 
 Gilt Frames for Portraits or other Pictures, also. 
 
 Kosewood Frames — Looking Glasses, &c., &;c., 
 
 WINDOW CURTAINS 
 
 AND 
 
 mmm^m mm^mm 
 
 mB M^ 
 
 <^l^gm 4^^^^ 
 
 E. L raMEIIILL k Co., 
 
 Have, in connection with their other business, the largej^t 
 assortment of Wall Paper, that can be found in this part of 
 the State, consisting of 
 
 MANY THOUSAND ROLLS, 
 
 Of the latest and most desirable patterns of French and 
 American Ma'nufacture, and almost every variety of Strip- 
 ed, Gothic, Arched, Landscape, Block Marble, Fresco and 
 
314 
 Gold Styles — Satin and Common Finish; logerher "with 
 
 over 
 
 200 Different Kinds of Clieap Paper, 
 
 From 6 cts. to $2 per roll, with a good assortment of wide 
 a«d narrow 
 
 'GOLD, VELVET (f- SATIN BORDERS TO MAT€R 
 
 FROM 4s. TO $6 PER. ROLL. 
 
 \(y These papers have all heen selected with great care, 
 and are of the latest styles of superior finish, and the best 
 asssortment in the market. Also, 
 
 WIDE GREEN PAPER FOR WINDOW SHADES. 
 
 We have upwards of forty 'different kinds., and every va- 
 riety of style that is new or desirable, viz : Pea Green, Dark 
 Green, and Blue, fine striped. Variegated and Blended, and 
 the best striped. Variegated and Blended, and the best 
 quality of paper that can be found. 
 
 PAINTED WINDOW SHADES, 
 
 Gothic, Landscape, Flower, &c., with centres or full, the 
 most beautiful article of House Furniture in use. Only -50 
 cents each, 
 
 Our arrancrements with the LARGEST EASTERN 
 MANUFACTURERS are s'jch, as will give to purchasers 
 great advantage in prices, while we are determined to keep 
 the best selected assortment, and at as low })rices as any in 
 town. ThGse who have been in the habit of buying of us, 
 at wholesale or retail, and all others will find it to their ad- 
 vantage to examine our stock before purchasing— and we 
 trust we shall be able to giv« satisfaction to those who may 
 ifavor us with their orders. 
 
315 
 
 EXPERIENCED HANDS furnished to bang paper, 
 when desired, and samples sent out to select from if wan- 
 ted. 
 
 HIT" Goods freely shown, and sold at very lowpriceS. 
 
 MATERIALS FOR DRAWING, PAINTING, &c.... 
 Bristol Board, Drawing Paper, Pencils, Paint, Brushes 6cc., 
 For sale by R. L. UNDERBILL & CO. 
 
 In a greater or less degree the principle which leads us> 
 to investigate, to examine, and to inquire, is- present in the 
 breast of each of the human species. We dignify with the 
 epithet of "Pursuit of Knowledge" the investigations of the 
 Ftudent of Philosophy, and degrade the habit of observa* 
 tion, of comparison, and research, which is a daily and con- 
 stant exercise of our faculties, by the application of the epi- 
 thet "Curiosity." 
 
 Is this just? — What constitutes the distinction ? that 
 there is such a thing as idle curiosity is admitted, but that 
 curiosity which leads the members of the first sin sex to spend 
 their time "shopping" is not idle, if the knowledge thus 
 gained is made available in the judicious selection of sub- 
 sequent purchases. 
 
 The most prolific source for the gratification of the prin- 
 ciple of curiosity is without doubt the Bath Bookstore, for 
 not only are the Books an endless fund of information, but 
 at the same place is also found an infinite variety of arti- 
 cles to gratify the eye, improve the taste, expand the mind, 
 strengthen the judgrnent, stimulate the intellect, allay un* 
 due excitement, arouse the sluggish temperament, incite 
 the desires, and also to gratify those who already possess 
 these desirable powers by affording abundant scope for their 
 exercise. 
 
316 
 
 It is unnfjcessary after this concatenation of expletives, tn 
 «dd tl^t the Bath Bookstore is emphatically a "Curiosity 
 Shop," where everything imaginable, rare, curious, indigen- 
 ous and exotic is more likely to be fonnd than in any place 
 that can be designated within the extent of the domain ol 
 that ancient brother of our "paternal — Uncle Sam." 
 
 Now unto all, tottering youth, decrepit age, the glowinj 
 belle or the stately guardian of the fair, to those who court 
 the syren, pleasure; or pursue the not less fleeting phantom 
 wealth, we send greeting, the invitation devoid of all for- 
 Tnality — "At Home"---the doors are cordially opened to all; 
 •drop in and spend an hour even i*" you do not buy— examiD*, 
 read, in shori — gratify your curiosity. 
 
 Then if you should wish lo buy, you will find in one cor- 
 ner a choice collection of Toys; and Masters Edward and 
 Robert; the proprietors thereof can supply you with a pennr 
 Trumpet or Rmg — up to a Wax Doll or Crying baby; & 
 China Tea Set, or a Coral necklace; in fine, a large stock 
 with small owners. Then should you desire to gratify a 
 friend with a present, or propitiate ith a significant token 
 of— , you will be furnished with a book that will plain- 
 ly sp'^ak thai which the trembling lips refuse the utterance. 
 
 Then what worthier gift for those whom we venerate i» 
 the dignity of age or esteem in the plenitude of all that i» 
 noble, that the expressions of those high in the honor ofth* 
 world fur their lofty powers of intellect and reason — for th« 
 aged, the time honored writings of Baxter, Bunyan and * 
 long list of kindred spirits, and for the mature mind what 
 more appropriata gift than a book emanating from the brain 
 of some masterspirit, from him, the immortal Bard, whos» 
 name shall " endure to the last sylable of recorded time,* 
 down to the fledgling aspirant for f^ime, or mstead of thetm, 
 the truth portraying page of the Historian, teaching philo- 
 sophy by example, or the soarinor flights of a Headley, or 
 abstrusities of a Carlyle — tempting the Icariars to melt their 
 waxed wings in the snn ofshurp criticism. For the gentler 
 mind what more pleasing gift than thp writings of Tuppei^ 
 Willie, Sigourney, Hemans, or LowelL, Hawihorot, M«Ur- 
 
tosh, &c., Grace Greeftwood, Fanny Fern or any other al- 
 literative nom deplume. Fur Youth what mere useful gift 
 than Abbotts Histories, the biographical examples of Mrs. 
 Tuthillor her pleasing Tales bearing a salutarv moral influ- 
 ence fertilizing like the dew. In vain wojld be the etidear- 
 or to describe the character of the vast variety of books that 
 611 our shelves; when you wish a book it is only nece&sary 
 to name the purpose for which it is intended' or the subject 
 to be studied and your desire will he supplied. 
 
 But Books may not meet your fancy — perhaps yonr co- 
 riosity does not run that way, as a young geniletnen one* 
 »aid of his 1aste for the society of ladies — if this be so.thea 
 turn to the show cases and examine the interminable varie- 
 ty of FANCY ARTICLES both useful and ornamental 
 that render the Bookstore a magazine of all things under 
 the sun and if some of these be not new then the king of 
 olden tinje must have surpassed^all modern intelligences in 
 the same ratio with his superiority to rule a household— fo» 
 who in these deger»erate days would deem himself compe- 
 tent to control buch a family of wives— unless indeed it b« 
 the puissant Governor or Utah— Ah I who knows! perhaps 
 herein lies the secret of human wisdom, for as the spirit ^f 
 curiosity has tiescended from Mother Eve to all her daugh- 
 ters, may it not be that the man who is the recipient of the 
 collective ctiriosity of many wives, must be wiser than he 
 who is dependent upon only one. Be wise then according 
 to your ability, and each of you who possess such an appen- 
 dage, despatch you better half on a "prospecting" expedi- 
 tion, and let each fail not to call and see the stock ol the 
 Bookstore the "old curiosity shop," and it will be strange 
 indeed if the vocabulary be not Astonishingly Alliterative — 
 Amulets^ Accordeons, Antiques, Aiglets, Attar, Argentique, 
 Albata, Amators, Allumettes, Amber, all artistically arrari|f- 
 ed. 
 
 Bracelets Beads. Bugles, Baskets, Boies, Brushes. Bo»- 
 •uetiers*. Backgimmon Boards, Baes, Baldrics, Barometer*. 
 Braid, Berlins, Brooches, beatific Bridal Bagatelles, l>©«i4r- 
 %X\j blended. • 
 
318 
 
 Card Cases, Corallines, Cabas, Chess, Crochet, Gords, 
 Chains, Cabinets, Candelabras, Chatelaines, Crayons, 
 Clasps, CharmS; Coiffure, Curtain Cornices, and Congeners, 
 closely Concinnous. 
 
 Dominoes, Bonceurs, Drapery, Dyes, Dentrifice, Detec- 
 tors, Date Denoters, Depilators, Dolls, Dice, Decorations; 
 Ditto Ditto Dozens. 
 
 Escritoires, Elegant Enamelled Embossed Envelopes. 
 ETC. ETC. etc. Extended enumeration exceeds ex- 
 pression. Efficient exhibition easier executed — eclipsing er- 
 pectaiion, expediting exportation^ — 
 
 which is the earnest wish of 
 Your most obedient servants, 
 
 The Proprietors of the 
 
 Bath Bookstore 
 
 From $1 to $10. Pocket Bibles various styles. 
 
 Chess-men, Back-gammoti Boards^ Dominoes, &c. Chil- 
 dren's Games. 
 
 ln'8D'?9 
 

 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 109 807 A