History of the town of Elma, Erie County, N.Y. : 1620 to 1901

Front matter

of the

URQRA.

I

Dedication

This book is dedicated to James T. Hurd, James A. Woodard, Myron H. Clark and Louis P. Reuther, a Committee on Printing and Finance, who assumed the obhgation to pay all bills for printing and expenses ; without this generous act on their part the probabilities are the History of the Town of Elma would never have been printed.

The Author.

Introduction

Histories of nations and states, and even of some counties and cities are at hand in most of our public and private libraries ; but a history of a town is not often to be found. Why is this? Is it because such a history is not necessary ; because of the small area of territory; of the small and scattered population; of the ignorance, poverty, want of enterprise among the people ; of the small importance attached to the growth and development of the town, and the events to be mentioned; or is it because no person or persons have been able or willing to devote the necessary time to gather the facts and so arrange them as to make a history? This, last, is most likely the true reason.

Many times within the last twelve or fifteen years I have been entreated by several of my neighbors to write a history of the town of Elma. My reply "that I was not a historian," was met with the statement, ''that being one of the early settlers in the town (coming in the spring of 1851), and having surveyed every road and almost every lot in the town, having been the first Town Clerk, after the formation of the town, and continuing as such Clerk for three j^ears, thus becoming acquainted with every man then residing in the town, and having in my possession and within my reach books and papers that no other person in the town had, or could have, that I ought to give this information to the people, in the form of a history of the town of Elma. "

After much thought and with many doubts and fears, at seventy-five years of age, being too old to be engaged at continuous hard labor, and thinking this might give employment for a few leisure hours I consented to write one chapter as an experiment ; with the agreement that I should read that chapter at a meeting of the "Young People's Association of Elma Village." I thought when that chapter was read they would be sd^tisfied that writing history was not in my line and that would close up the matter.

According to agreement I wrote what is here given as Chapter One, and read it before the Association on the evening of March 18th, 1897; but instead of saying that was enough, I was urged to go on and write a complete history of the town.

So I commenced on Chapter Two, thinking that it would take but a few pages to mention all that would be of interest, as the town had been organized but a few years; but I found that the recording of one incident introduced another that required mentioning, and that another, and so there grew to be a wider and more extended range of subjects, and so the work has been continued until some of the incidents of the year 1901 are mentioned.

I have consulted, as helps in obtaining facts for this work, histories and encj^clopedias as to the early settlement of the country, the histories of the Civil War b}^ J. T. Headley and Horace Greeley; and for other parts of the work, I have used the records in the Erie County Clerk's Office, the Records in the office of the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Erie County, N. Y., and of the Town Clerk's office of the town of Elma.

In addition to the above, from my own personal knowledge, (having kept a diary for manj^ 3^ears) and from information obtained by correspondence and from persons who were on the ground and who knew whereof they spoke I have gathered and arranged the facts here presented.

Among the persons who have been consulted and from whom very much valuable information has been obtained, they being, or having been, most of them, residents of the town of Elma, and many of them having been among the first or early settlers of the town, and to whom I am under many obligations, and to whom I hereby tender especial thanks for the help they have rendered, are the following, viz. :

Mr. Chester Adams,

Mr. John Quincy Adams,

Mr. Harr}^ .Dingman,

Mr. Edwin H. Dingman,

Mr. William H. Davis,

Mr. John Estabrook,

Mr. Willard Fairbanks,

Mr. Wallace W. Fones,

Mr. Joseph Grace,

Mr. James J. Grace,

Mr. George W. Hatch,

Mr. Niles Hatch,

Mr. Conrad P. Hensel,

Mr. Cyrus Hurd,

Mr. Harry Jones,

Mr. Jacob Kock,

Mr. George Leger,

Mrs. Erastus J. Markham,

Mr. Eli B. Northrup,

Mr. Stephen Northrup,

Mr. Harvey C. Palmer.

Mr. Christopher Peek,

Mr. John Scott,

Mr. W. Wesley Standart,

Mr. Benjamin F. Stetson,

Mr. Julius P. Wilder,

Mr. Thomas D. Williams,

Rev. William Waith,

Mrs. Wm. Baker (nee Lucia A.

Morris) daughter of David J.

Morris, Mrs. Daniel Ronian (nee Betsey

Hatch) daughter of Leonard

Hatch, Mr. and Mrs. Jos. B. Briggs, Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo C. Bancroft, Mr. and Mrs. John Carman, Mr. and Mrs. Scott Fairbanks, Mr. and Mrs. Wm, AV. Grace, Mr. and Mrs. Clark W. Hurd, Mr. and Mrs. Fowler Munger, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Tillou, Mr. and Mrs. James H. Ward, Mr. and Mrs. Dennis L. Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Eron Woodard, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Young.

While I have been able to obtain much information from the above mentioned sources, there have been many incidents and conditions in the town of Elma within the last 70 years which would be of mAich interest to particular individuals and communities, and which would make large additions to this histor}^ could they have been obtained ; but it was practically impossible for me to personally see and interview ever}'- person or family in the town and to thus obtain these items, so I have been obliged to omit that part which, however, may be written by some historian in later j^ears.

Some ma}^ say that there is much that is no part of, and has nothing to do with the town of Elma; while admitting that these parts may not be absolutely necessary, there is such a strong connecting link, that I thought it would make the whole chain more complete. It may be said that to some parts of the town more space is given, more items and incidents are mentioned than to other portions. To a certain extent this may be true, as in some parts of the town information was more readily given ; and as great changes have been made in the resident population of the town, it was, in some places impossible to obtain the desired items, or to obtain correct and reliable information on the points desired.

In the History more than 8,000 times are individuals, places, subjects, and incidents mentioned, each having' required from ten minutes to five or six hours of time.

When I first consented to commence this work had I realized the amount of time, labor and thought that would be required to obtain and arrange the items, and write the History^ it is very likely that the Lion in the way would have appeared so large and terrible that I would have never begun the work ; but I have always found the Lion securely chained, and the way open for mj^ escape.

I have learned that the hardest thing to find in this world is exact truth ; especially is this the case when the investigation has reference to incidents of past time; to the time whose actors are dead, and whose direct testimony cannot be obtained. To deal with these questions, and to get the truth when the opinions of the living conflict, becomes to the writer of history a matter of no small moment, and requires much thought and labor.

Perfection in the works of man being so exceedingly rare, and because of the inability to obtain at times the desired information, I cannot claim that this History in all its parts, is entirely perfect. That there ma}^ be found slight inaccuracies, and what some will say are errors or mistakes, is more than probable; but with the light, knowledge and help that has been within m.j reach, I have tried to reduce these to the lowest possible limit.

PLAN OF THE HISTORICAL PART

The first settlement in the town having been made on the Mile Strip (see Map), followed by settlements at East Elma and vicinity, at Elma Village and vicinity, and at Spring BrOok and vicinity, a chapter has been devoted to each of these places from the date of settlement to the time the town was formed, December 4th, 1856; from that date the whole town is carried along together, jeSiT by year, to the close of the year 1900: my thought being to close the historical part with that date, but later I decided to add some of the incidents of the year 1901 in the town as an Appendix.

See table of contents for the subject matter and page of each Chapter.

Mention of anj^ person, place or event can be readily found by the Index in the last part of the book.

Warren Jackman.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE .

1 Geography of the Town of Elma 17

2 North American Indians. Five Nations 22

Chapter I. Gecxjraphy Of The Town Of Elma

HAT is History?

History is the record of important events so arranged as to show the changes that have taken place, and to consider the causes that have operated to produce these results.

In the town of Elma, State of New York, and the United States, its territory, matters of government, political influence, agriculture, arts, manufactures, commerce, wealth, etc., etc. — have these always been as we see them today? If not, then there have been changes, and these have been produced by certain causes. A record of these general and local incidents is our history.

The town of Elma is in the centre of the county of Erie, in the State of New York, in the United States of North America. A history of the town of Elma is therefore a history of a part of the County of Erie, and of a part of the State of New York, and also a history of a part of the United States.

As a corollary — the history of the United States is, in part, a history of the town of Elma.

The history of any region, nation, or locality, properly begins with its original inhabitants, with mention of the earliest events and incidents, which later on work out results which bring that particular region into prominence. Then follows the life work in detail. So the history of the United States usually begins with an account of the earliest discoveries of the American Continent, and the claims to territory by Spain, France, England and Holland, with their efforts to plant colonies; and thus by possession, to hold the territory they each claimed.

More than four hundred years have passed since Christopher Columbus made his first voyage of discovery.

It took the nations of Europe one hundred and thirty years to plant four colonies as permanent settlements in what is now the United States.

INFANT PERIOD OF THE COLONIES.

The infant period of this country was begun by these early settlements; and the Pilgrims, on November 11th, 1620, before leaving the May Flower gave in their Constitution the key note or outbreathing of a spirit that was to grow and increase, until all the colonies should be permeated with its principles.

No magic wand was at that time passed over this land to suddenly transform the wilderness into the rich and prosperous country as we now see it. Instead, these changes came through years of toil, hardship, privations, suffering, massacres, oppression, wars and long waiting. The difficulties with which the colonies had to contend — wars with the French and Indians ; troubles ■ with Great Britain which culminated in the Revolutionary war; the trials, dangers and doubts which attended the Confederacy; and later, the formation of a government by the adoption of the Constitution of United States in 1787, required all the wisdom and sagacity of the best statesmen the world ever knew to save the country from total wreck. This constituted the infant period of one hundred and seventy years of this nation. Then Brother Jonathan, or Uncle Sam, had reached the stature of a full grown man, ready to do business, and the United States became, in fact, one of the nations of the earth. The young man has been doing a prosperous business for more than one hundred years.

As patriotic citizens, we all love our country and have admiration and respect almost to reverence for all those persons who took such active parts in the early period of our history; and we take a great interest in all the events that have, to this date, worked together during these two hundred and eighty years, which has brought us from a wilderness inhabited by roving tribes of savages, into the possession of a continent extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the great lakes and Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, with more than seventy-six millions of people, and with all the vast resources and possibilities which have made us a great and prosperous and influential nation; the wonder and admiration of statesmen everywhere, and the leader among the nations of the earth.

We have in the well written histories of our countr}^ a full narrative of all these events and incidents with causes and results in minute detail ; and as the history of the United States in general, is, in part, a history of the town of Elma, it is not necessary in writing a historj^ of this town to mention these separate incidents only so far as thej^ have a direct relation to this particular locality.

The name, Elma, was given to this town in December, 1856, when the town was formed from Lancaster and Aurora. The early history commenced man}^ years before that date, and it may be well to here state that the name, "Town of Elma," and the local names as now known will be applied to any event affecting this locality, whether it has reference to a time before or after the actual organization of the town.

BOUNDARY.

The town of Elma lies a little northeast of the centre of the €ounty of Erie, in the State of New York and is bounded on the north by Lancaster, east b}'- Marilla, south by Aurora, and west by East Hamburg and West Seneca, and is six miles in extent, east and west, about five and two-thirds miles north and south and •contains twenty-one thousand three hundred and ninety acres •of land for assessment of taxes, and is known on deeds and legal papers as a part of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, and also as Town 10, Range 6 of the Holland Land Company Surveys.

TOPOGRAPHY.

No causes are known, or are supposed to have existed since the "Glacial Period, that would produce any general or local changes in the face of the country in this locality. We may therefore conclude that the hills, the plains and the valleys are today practically as they have been for hundreds, and possibly thousands of years.

STREAMS.

The principal streams in the town are the Little Buffalo, the Big Buffalo, the Cazenove Creeks and Pond Brook.

The Little Buffalo Creek enters the town from Marilla about one and one-half miles south from the northeast corner of Elma, in a channel about twenty feet wide and three to five feet deep in a valley sixty to eighty rods wide; has a general northwest course and passes into Lancaster about seven-eights of a mile west from the northeast corner of Elma. The valley through which this stream flows is sixty to eighty feet below the general level of the country, with steep bluffy sides or banks.

The Big Buffalo Creek crosses the town line from Marilla about three-fourths of a mile north from the southeast corner of Elma in a channel eight}'- to one hundred and twenty feet wide and six to ten feet deep. This is a very crooked stream, its general, tortuous course being northwest for about one mile, thence northerly through East Elma, and on for about three and one-half miles, thence westerly four and one-half miles passing through Elma village, thence north-westerly one and one-fourth miles through Blossom, into

West Seneca about one-third of a mile south from the northwest corner of the town of Elma. The valley of this stream is sixty to one hundred rods wide with steep banks, generally perpendicular walls of shale on one or the other side. The bed of the stream is thirty to eighty feet below the surrounding country.

The Cazenove Creek, named for Theophilus Cazenove, agent for the Holland Land Company, crosses the Aurora town line about one mile east from the southwest corner of Elma, in a channel eighty to one hundred feet wide, and six to ten feet deep, takes a general north course for two and one-half miles to Spring Brook, thence westerly one mile crossing into West Seneca about two and one-half miles north from the southwest corner of Elma. The valley of this stream is sixty to one hundred rods wide, with generally steep banks sixty to one hundred feet high and perpendicular walls of shale on one or the other side.

Pond Brook has its name from large ponds at its head, which are in the town of Aurora just across the Elma town line and about one and one-half miles west from the northeast corner of Aurora. The general course of this brook is west of north for five miles, when it enters the Big Buffalo Creek at Elma village. Its channel is eight to twenty feet wide and two to four feet deep in a valley six to twenty rods wide, with banks eight to forty feet high.

GEOLOGY.

The lowest rocks are the Hamilton Shales succeeded by Tully limestone and Genesee slate.

The Hamilton Shales form the bed and banks of the Big Buffalo Creek from the west line of the town to where the Bullis Mills were located; the bed of Pond Brook, from the Big Buffalo Creek to where the William Standart saw mill was built, just north from the Bullis Road, and the bed and walls of the Cazenove Creek from the west line of the town to the Northrup Mills at Spring Brook.

The Tully limestone, so called because it is found near the top of the hills in the town of Tully in the south part of Onondaga County, is also called encrinal limestone because of the great number of fossil remains of Encrinites, the joints and stems of which are small calcareous disks, sometimes called fossil button moulds. This Limestone crobs out in the Cazenove Creek at the Northrup mills, and in Pond Brook just north of the Bullis Road, and again in the Big Buffalo Creek just north or below the Bullis Bridge.

The Genesee slate, lying immediately above the Tully limestone, forms the bed and walls of the Big Buffalo and Cazenove Creeks above the points named to the south and east parts of the town and frequently crops out on the hillsides in those places.

A ridge or elevation ten to twenty feet high extends in a northeast and southwest direction across the town a Httle north of the centre. That portion of the town lying north of this ridge is the same nearly level portion of the county that extends east and north from Buffalo, and in Elma is broken only by the valley of the Big Buffalo Creek and the gullies caused by its small branches. The soil is a clayey loam, resting on the Hamilton shales. South of this ridge the surface becomes more rolling; the highest hills in the southeast part of the town being one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the beds of the streams. The soil in this hilly part of the town is a drift formation of gravel and loose boulders. The soil in the valleys of the stream is alluvium.

FOREST,

This town was probably for many centuries, and to a time within the remembrance of many persons now living, a dense forest or wilderness with a very heavy growth of timber and was the home of wild animals and the wilder tribes of savages called Indians.

TIMBER.

The principal varieties of timber may be given as white and yellow pine, hemlock, white, red and black oak, white and black ash, sugar, rock, and white or soft maple, black walnut, butternut, shell bark hickory, basswood, whitewood, cucumber, bitternut, black cherry, iron wood and birch.

Pine and oak were found principally in the eastern, southern and central parts of the town. The other varieties were common everywhere.

It is only within the last few years that a white man has lived within the limits of the town.

INDIANS.

About thirty families of Indians were the only residents. These had their homes on the fiats of the Big Buffalo and Cazenove Creeks or on the high banks near these streams. It was on these flats that they had small clearings of three or four acres on which they raised corn, beans, and gourds. The balance of their living they obtained by hunting and fishing and from the whites in the adjoining towns.

These Indians have a history; and as they were the original owners and occupants of the lands, it is proper that we take them in review and in the next chapter give them a little notice as to their traditions, their history as we know it, their living here and finally, their selling out and moving away, giving place to the present residents of the town of Elma.

w

Chapter II. North American Indians

'HEN the American Continent was first discovered, the voyagers everywhere, north, south, and east, on the coast, and in the interior, found the country occupied by a people they called Indians.

These Indians were generally roving tribes, changing their places of residence as wars or hunting made the change necessary. A few of the tribes were permanently located, had villages, cleared fields and orchards, ancl some of the villages were enclosed with pahsades as a protection against any attacking enemy.

The State of New York, except what is now Erie and Chautauqua counties and the southeast corner of the State was claimed and occupied by five tribes, viz: Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas; known the world over as the Iroquois or Five Nations.

The Mohawks had their principal villages on the Mohawk River; their territory embracing the northern and eastern part of the State.

The Oneidas lived on and near Oneida Lake. The Onondagas occupied the territory around Onondaga Lake. The Caj'-ugas had their villages around Cayuga Lake. The Senecas before 1780 had their chief village, Kan-a-de-sa-ga, just west of the present site of Geneva, at the foot of Seneca Lake. They were the most numerous,, powerful and warlike of the Five Nations.

The question has often been asked: "When did these five tribes obtain possession of so much territory?"

ONONDAGA AND SENECA TRIBES.

History tells us that when Champlain, the French explorer, came from Montreal into Lake Ontario and up the Oswego River in July, 1609, he found the Onondagas in full possession of all that country, and when the French first came to the Niagara River they found the Senecas there; but when they reached Lake Erie they found a small tribe at the foot of the Lake to which they gavethe name of Neuters; and on the south shore of the Lake were the Erie or Cat Indians.

The Neuters and Eries were overpowered by the Senecas in a war between them about 1645, and the result was that the Senecas came into possession of all the land and villages of the defeated tribes.

Some nations which have had no written language by which to keep a record of important events, have used pictures or characters as emblems carved on stone or metals. Other nations have made characters or figures of some sort on blocks of soft cla}^ which when baked, become indestructible. These are now being found in excavations and ruins of long lost and buried cities in the east.

Other nations not so far advanced in civilization [the American Indians belonging to this class] have kept in remembrance some of their most important events by tradition ; parents telling the story to their children and friends, and so on through many generations.

It is not at all strange that these stories from being told and retold many times may, in some respects, become changed and so tradition, as a rule, must be taken as rather uncertain and unsatisfactory evidence ; but the main or leading thought can always be found.

TRADITIONS.

The Onondagas and the Senecas were the only tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy that had any tradition of anything prior to the settlements made by the whites.

The traditions of the Iroquois nation since Champlain came into their country in 1609, accord exactly with the history that we have of them; and as there is this agreement between our history and their traditions so long as we have known them, it is fair to infer that their earher traditions are nearly correct; and as they furnish the only, and therefore the best evidence we can obtain, we are obliged to accept these tracUtions as approximately correct.

The Onondaga tradition is that the}^ were the oldest if not the mother tribe of the Five Nations.

That several hundred years before they ever saw a white man, they lived in Canada; and being defeated in wars with a superior tribe, they fled in boats across Lake Ontario and up the Oswego River to Onondaga Lake where they stopped. Here they lived and as they increased in numbers and extended their settlements, they found fortified villages of inhabitants who were acquainted with agriculture and had cultivated fields and orchards whom they overpowered and took possession of their lands.

They called them Mound Builders. The Onondagas have no tradition as to the time they overpowered this people, or as to the time when they organized their system of clans, or when they formed their confederacy of the Five Nations, all of which may have been 600 or 1000 years ago. We learn by this tradition that these Mound Builders were here before the Onondagas came from Canada. It is not necessary to follow their tradition since 1609, as we have a written history since that time. The Onondagas being the central tribe and probably the original stock of the Iroquois, to them was entrusted the care of the sacred council fires, and upon their territory were held the great councils of the Nation to decide all questions of great importance, wars, peace and all matters of general policy and interest.

f The Seneca traditions make no mention of their coming from another country but that they broke out of the earth from a large mountain at the head of Canandaigua Lake. Thence they derive their name, "Ge-nun-de-wah, " or Great Hill, and are called the Great Hill People.

They have a tradition that before and for some time after their origin at Ge-nun-de-wah, the country about the lakes and far away was thickly inhabited by a race of civil, enterprising and industrious people who had cultivated fields and large villages, and that they were totally destroyed by a great serpent, which also destroyed nearly all of the Senecas, only enough of whom were spared to replenish their tribe.

Mary Jemison, also called the White Woman, of whom we shall have more to say later on, thus gives the Seneca tradition of a people who were here before they came and, no doubt, they were the same people referred to in the Onondaga tradition, and the same race that have left mounds and forts all through the country from the Mississippi River to central New York. The tradition that they, the Senecas, broke out of the earth from a large mountain, probably refers to the fact that they settled there and built a fort on the top of the mountain, thus making it their home village.

We can hardly imagine what the serpent was that, they say, destroyed all the people who were there before they came, and which came so near destroying them also; producing such widespread desolation, unless it might have been some plague or contagious disease.

MOUND BUILDERS.

These Mound Builders left nothing whereby their history can be learned, and only by the traditions of these two tribes of the Iroquois, have we any intimation so as to enable us to even guess when they lived there — whether six hundred or two thousand years ago.

Two of these mounds or forts are on the tops of two hills near the northeast corner of the town of Aurora, and two were on Lot 2 in this town of Elma on land now owned by Mr. William V. Lougee, where several j^ears ago in leveling the banks which comprised the fort, parts of several skeletons were found, the bones being of more than ordinary size, showing that they belonged to a race of people of large statue. These forts were east of the Big Buffalo Creek and about a fourth of a mile west from the east line of Elma.

One other fort was on the west side of the Big Buffalo Creek on lots 29 and 30, land formerly owned by Lewis M. Bullis. This fort like all the others was circular in form and enclosed about eight or ten acres of land ; . crossing the Bullis Road and extending to the south side of a dense thicket and swamp, taking in a large spring at the edge of the swamp. The embankment in 1852, before the land was cleared, was three to four feet high and eight to twelve feet wide at the base; large pine and other trees two to three and one-half feet in diameter were at that time growing on the top and sides of the embankment and in the ditch, of the same size and age as the surrounding forest. The only account the Indians could give of these forts or mounds is what is mentioned in the traditions of the Onondaga and Seneca tribes of the Iroquois.