Landmarks of Wayne County, New York

Front matter

LANDMARKS

OF

NEW YORK

Chapter I

Original Civil Divisions of New York State — Subsequent Divisions — Physical Characteristics of Wayne County — Fish and Animals of this Locality — Climatic Peculiarities — Effects of the Climate upon the Health of the Settlers — Coming of Wayne County Pioneers. i

Chapter II

Indian Occupation of Western New York — Treatment of Indians by White Men — Relation of the Indians to Wayne County — The Jesuits and their Work — Local Operations in the War of the Revolution — Indian Remains 9

Chapter III

Early Conditions in Western New York — Sketches of the "Genesee Country" and the Phelps andGorham Purchase — The Pre-emption Lines — Organization of Companies to Secure Lands in Western New York — A Very Extensive " Mill-Yard "—The Morris Reserve— The Military Tract as Related to Wayne County. ...14

Chapter IV

Early Conditions in the "Genesee Country" — Efforts of Great Britain to Retain the Territory — Fears of Indian Invasion — Lack of Means of Communication with the East — Charles Williams and his Work — Colony on the Genesee River — Quaker Settlement at Jerusalem — Settlement at Canandaigua — List of Settlers West of Pre-emption Line — Opening of Roads — A Journey Westward from Albany — Privations of Pioneers. . . _ 26

Chapter V

Beginning of Settlement in the Territory of Wayne County — Early Map of Western New York — Map of the "Genesee Lands" — Localities First Settled in Wayne County — Beginning at East Palmyra — Importance of Ganargwa Creek — First Improvement at Sodus Bay — Improvement of Highways — Settlements in Various Localities — The Threatened Canadian Invaion — Final Establishment of Peaceful Conditions — Estimate of Williamson's Policy 39 vi CONTENTS.

Chapter VI

Circumstances of the Pioneers — Current Prices of Produce — Inconvenience of Distant Markets — Gradual Improvement of Roads — Old Stage Lines — Erection of Early Mills— Outbreak of the War of 1812— Effects of the Conflict in Wayne County — Military Operations at Sodus Bay — Account of a Skirmish — Descent upon Pultneyville — General Improvements Following the Close of the War. - 52

Chapter VII

Further Improvement in Means of Transportation — Discussion of the "Grand Canal" — Investigation and Surveys — Progress and Completion of the Great Work — Its Effect upon Wayne County — Other Public Improvements — The First Railroad — The Railroads of Wajne County — Brief History of Mormonism — Inception of Spiritualism 65

Chapter VIII

End of the Reign of Peace — The First Gun — Military Enthusiasm — Wayne County The President's First Proclamation — The First Company Recruited in Wayne County — Sketches of the Various other Wayne County Organizations 83

Chapter IX

Since the War — Internal Improvements — Legislative Acts— Agricultural Productions — Peppermint — Statistics, etc. — Civil List — Recapitulation. 91

Chapter X

Comparison of State Law with the Common Law — Evolution of the Courts — The Court of Appeals — The Supreme Court — The Court of Chancery — The County Court — The Surrogate's Court — Justice's Court — District Attorneys — Sheriffs — Court House — Judicial Officers — Personal Notes. 101

Landmarks of Wayne County.

Chapter I

Original Civil Divisions of New York State — Subsequent Divisions — Physical Characteristics of Wayne County — Fish and Animals of this Locality — Climatic Peculiarities — Effects of the Climate upon Health of the Settlers — Coming of Wayne County Pioneers.

The original ten counties of what is now the State of New York were created November 1, 1683, and named Albany, Dutchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester. On the 11th of March, 1772, Montgomery county was erected under the name of " Tryon " (the change in name was made in 1784), and embraced nearly the whole of the central and western part of the State. In 1789 all that part of the State lying west of Phelps & Gorham's pre-emption line (see outline map of the county on a later page), was erected into the county of Ontario, which ultimately gave a part of its territory to Wayne county. Two years later (1791), Herkimer county was taken from Montgomery; in 1794, Onondaga county was set off from Herkimer ; in 1799, Cayuga was taken from Onondaga, and in 1804, Seneca county was taken from Cayuga, and ultimately gave a part of its territory to Wayne county. Seneca county was embraced in the military tract, described herein. From the two counties of Ontario and Seneca, Wayne county was erected on the 11th of April, 1823. Most of that part of the county lying east of the pre-emption line was taken from the military tract, and now embraces the towns of Savannah, Galen, Butler, Rose, Wolcott and Huron; and all of the county west of that line, embracing the towns of Lyons, Arcadia, Sodus, Williamson, Marion, Palmyra, Ontario, Walworth and Macedon, was taken from Ontario county. The dates of the formation of the fifteen towns now composing Wayne county were as follows : Palmyra l and Sodus, January, 1780; Williamson, February 20, 1802; Ontario, March 27, 1807; Wolcott, March 24, 1807; Lyons, March 1, 1811; Galen, February 14, 1812; Macedon, January 21), 1823; Savannah, November 24, 1824; Arcadia, February 15, 1825; Rose, February 5, 1826; Huron, February 25, 182(3; Butler, February 26, 1826; Walworth, April 20, 1829. It will be noticed that several of these towns have been erected since the formation of the county.

The law erecting Wayne county states that it should contain the towns of Wolcott and Galen, in Seneca county (from which have been taken four other towns), and Lyons, Sodus, Williamson, Ontario, and Macedon, and all that part of Phelps north of an east and west line from the southwest corner of Galen to the east line of Manchester, from Ontario county; from these six towns, three others have been erected since the county was set off, making the present fifteen. That part of Phelps above described was added to the town of Lyons. The act of organization also gave the new county two members of Assembly, and ordered the first election to be held on the first Tuesday of May, 1824, and the two succeeding days. It also made the county a part of the Twenty-sixth Congressional District, and of the Seventh Senatorial District, now in Twenty-eighth Senatorial District. The county received its name in honor of Gen. Anthony Wayne, of the Revolutionary Army. It is bounded on the north by Lake Ontario; east by Cayuga county; south by Seneca and Ontario counties, and west by Monroe county.

The surface of Wayne county is level or slightly rolling, and is generally admirably adapted to agriculture. It has a general slope northward towards the great lake. Proceeding southward from the lake a quite uniform rise continues to what is known as " The Ridge." This is an elevation extending across the county from east to west, following to a certain extent the shore conformation of the lake and continuing on westward through Monroe, Orleans, and Niagara counties. Its height is from 150 to 188 feet. This peculiar elevation, its situation with reference to the lake shore, its constituent soil, have revealed to ardent and persistent students of geology the assurance that in past ages it constituted the southern shore of Lake Ontario, the waters of which have since receded northward. J The accompanying outline

1 Professor Hall, State geologist, says of this ridge: "It bears all the marks of having been the boundary of a large body of water, and of having been produced in geological map indicates not only the line of the ridge, but also other interesting matters, with the probable location of the once great glacier that is believed to have existed to the northward.

Map of Lake Iroquois.

Showing the line of the present lake shore, the original shore line, the former supposed outlet of the lake by the Mohawk River, and the situation of the great northern ice sheet. 1

On the Wayne county lake shore is by far the largest indentation on the southern shore of the lake — Sodus Bay. It is a safe as well as a beautiful harbor, its projecting headlands, varied shore line and pictnesque island commanding unqualified admiration. One traveler of early times described it as "rivalling the Bay of Naples in the purity of its waters and the romantic nature of its scenery." It was visited the same manner as the elevated beaches bordering the ocean or our larger lakes. . . Its seaward side is usually covered with coarse gravel and often with large pebbles, resembling the shingle of the sea beaches. The top is generally of coarse sand and gravel, though sometimes of fine sand, as if blown up by the wind, similar to modern beaches."

1 From "The Niagara Book," Underhill & Nichols, Buffalo, 1893.

by the Jesuits and given by them the name "Assorodus," or "silver waters." It was also a noted loeality with the Indians, who made it a meeting place for various purposes.

The ridge has an upper surface width of from fifty to two hundred feet, and southward of this the surface of the county is somewhat broken by north and south ridges, with rather abrupt northward headings and sloping of southward, rising in some places to the dignity of hills, but in almost all sections susceptible of tillage. These ridges are composed of clay, sand and gravel, and seem to be deposits from strong currents of water.

The soil of the county generally is derived from drift deposits and composed of a sandy or gravelly loam, with minor intermixture of clay. Along the lake shore it is principally derived from the disintegration of the Medina sand stone, making a reddish, sandy loam. In the valley of Clyde River is a rich soil of gravelly loam and alluvium. There is considerable marsh land in the county, along the Clyde and Seneca Rivers and north of the ridge, the surface of which when drained is covered with a deep and rich vegetable mold, which is very fertile.

The lowest rock in this county is the Medina sandstone, which is so extensively quarried in various localities in Western New York for building and paving purposes. It appears on the lake and in the ravines near to it, occupying a strip about two miles in average width and widest in the western part. This sandstone embraces four species, which are geologically described as the red marl, which decomposes by exposure and is the source of the red clay of this locality; the gray quartzose sandstone, which succeeds the one just mentioned, and is the hardest of the group; the red shale, or sandstone, a red shaly or marly mass, as its title indicates, mottled with spots of greenish gray; and the greenish -gray argillaceous sandstone, similar to the one last named, except in its color. The extent of the Medina group seems quite limited when compared with the remaining rocks of this period. It occurs through Western New York, thinning out to the eastward and is not found beyond Utica. Southward of the Appalachian region it extends through to Pennsylvania and Virginia, attaining in some places a thickness of 1,500 feet. On the Niagara River it is from 350 to 400 feet thick, passes into Canada and has been found as far north as the Straits of Mackinac.

Next above the Medina stone comes the Clinton group of limestone and shales, extending to the foot of the limestone ridge. Then sueceeds the Niagara limestone, forming the summit ridge and occupying a strip about three miles in width. This gradually increases in depth to the westward; is thirty to forty feet thick in Wayne county, from seventy to eighty in Rochester, while at Niagara Falls it is more than 160 feet thick. In Pennsylvania its thickness exceeds 1,500 feet. Minerals are found in this stone, but none of great value. South of the lim&stone in this county is the Onondaga salt group of red and green shales and gypsum, extending to the southern border and occupying nearly one-half of the county. These rocks are mostly covered with thick deposits of drift, and are not extensively exposed except in ravines. Weak salt and sulphur springs are found in various localities in the Medina sandstone and the red shales of the Onondaga salt group.

Wayne county is well watered Ganargwa, or Mud Creek, enters the southwest corner of the county from Ontario, flows in a general easterly course to Lyons, where it unites with the Canandaigua outlet and forms the Clyde River. This considerable stream received its name from William McNab, a Scotch settler; it continues eastward to the eastern bounds of the county, where it discharges its waters into Seneca River. The Clyde, like all other streams, was once of considerable more volume than it now has and was navigable as far as Lyons and the Ganargwa (Mud Creek), even farther, constituting a highway for the pioneers and a link in the chain of interrupted waterways from Albany westward. Mud Creek and the Clyde receive from the northwest Red Creek, East Red Creek, and Bear Creek, and several small brooks from the south. The streams flowing into Lake Ontario are Bear, Ueer, Davis, Salmon, Thomas, Wolcott, and Big and Little Red Creeks. First, Second, and Third creeks flow into Sodus Bay. The only considerable body of water in the county is Crusoe Lake, in the southeast corner.

The climate of Wayne county is more equable and healthful than in many other localities of the same latitude. This was not fully understood in earl}'' years, and much of the sickness of those times was attributed to climatic influences. This was undoubtedly an error ; the causes of prevailing diseases were more specific and local, such as clearing the lands along streams like Ganargwa Creek, thus lowering the water and leaving decaying vegetation exposed to the sun; the plowing up of new lands, etc. With the termination of these causes, their ill effects also disappeared in large measure. The equable climate of this locality is rightly attributed to the proximity of the great lake, whose waters it is believed absorb the excessive sun heat of summer and modify the severe cold of winter. The mean temperature here extending over a period of several years has been shown to be a little over forty-eight degrees. No section of the State of New York at the present time has a more varied and at the same time delightful climate than Wayne county.

The prevailing sickness of early years was fever, and it was wide spread and often fatal in all parts of the Genesee country. In an essay prepared by Dr. Ludlow on this subject he said: None were exempt from the intermittent fevers which prevailed (in 1801). Peruvian bark was generally a remedy, but was of rare use. When left to nature, the disease became typhoid, and endangered recovery. All fevers, except fever and ague, were called by the people, "Lake or Genesee fevers."

After tracing the course of these diseases through several years, Dr. Ludlow said that the principal disease up to 1822 was dysentery, which was most fatal to children. While after 1828 fevers became rarely fatal, and that now records of health and longevity are favorable to Wayne county.

Into this region came during the last decade of the preceding century and the early years of the present century, a class of pioneers who were, as a rule, well adapted to the work of founding homes and communities in the wilderness. They were men and women endowed with ambition, firmness of purpose, industrious, and frugal. Such qualifications were necessary to enable them to succeed in their undertaking; and their success was in very many instances dearly bought, as the reader of these pages will learn. Aside from the natural sources of food before mentioned, provisions were scarce and costly. Even the necessary article of salt was almost impossible to obtain, except by a long and tedious journey to Onondaga. As an example of what it cost to secure a little salt, it is related that three men started from the town of Victor (Ontario county), in the fall of 1790 for Palmyra on their way to the salt springs, they and their neighbors being destitute of the article. At Palmyra they took a Schenectady boat and went their toilsome way. A little below the junction of Ganargwa Creek and the outlet, they encountered a stretch of drift wood fifteen rods or more in extent, and had to haul their boat up a steep shore and around the obstruction on rollers, and re-embark below. After days of hard labor they reached the salt works of Asa Danforth at Salina, where they procured twelve barrels of salt and started homeward. While in Seneca River a snow storm came on and ice formed in the stream. Often the men were forced to get into the freezing water in order to proceed at all. Both boat and salt had to be transported around the driftwood, and at Lyon's landing boat and cargo were left, and later were carried from there to their destination by the aid of six yoke of oxen, wagons and sleds, through the wilderness. This is only an incident, but it clearly indicates what the pioneers often had to undergo to avoid suffering and keep their families in even tolerable comfort.

Those who live in the comfortable homes of Wayne county to-day, and especially those of the younger generation, can scarcely realize the hardships endured by their ancestors, except as they may have heard their stories related, or have read them in the records that have been laboriously gathered and preserved in the few volumes devoted to local history.

The lake shore in Wayne county is generally bold and varies greatly in height ; at the mouth of Salmon Creek it is ten feet high, a little lower in Williamston, and at Sodus Point, from eighty to a hundred feet. The Erie Canal is carried along the valley cf the Clyde, from both sides of which the surface rises very gradually. Canandaigua, Crooked, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes charge northwardly into the stream which traverses this valley. The stream is known first as Mud Creek, (it has recently taken the more euphonius Indian name of Ganargwa), until joined by the Canandaigua outlet, when it becomes Clyde River, and so continues eastward to Montezuma, where it receives through the Seneca outlet, the waters of Crooked, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, continues east into Onondaga county, where it joins the outlet of Oneida Lake to form the Oswego River.

The Cayuga (or Montezuma) marshes occupy a part of the town of Savannah, surrounding both sides of Crusoe Island, and extend into the south part of Butler. What is known as Cooper's swamp is situated in the south part of Williamston. There is also a cranberry swamp at the head of Port Bay. These swamps contain deposits of marl, in which are found quantities of fresh-water shells.

There are several sulphur springs about one and a half miles south of Newark. Another is situated on Salmon Creek in Sodus; others near Palmyra, Clyde and Marion Center. The waters of these springs have not been used extensively.

111 the early history of this locality, a large salt spring was discovered in the town of Savannah on the western edge of the Cayuga marshes. Salt was manufactured here in limited quantities in early years. Salt springs were also discovered in the town of Wolcott, where an impure salt was made as early as L815. A salt spring was found on a small creek emptying into the bay near Sodus Point. Borings were made many years ago for salt about two miles east of Lockpit near the canal, and originally a spring existed at tins point. A limited product was manufactured here for a time. In 1832, a company was organized and borings for salt begun near Clyde village. The immediate locality showed no indications of salt, but at a depth of four hundred feet salt water was obtained of good strength, but in limited quantity. No salt is now made in the county.

Iron ore has been discovered in various places. About a mile east of Lockpit bog-iron occurs near the surface. A bed of argillaceous oxide of iron crosses the county from east to west at about two miles from the lake. This ore has been worked in furnaces in the towns of Wolcott, Sodus and Ontario; it lias also been ground for paint. Further details of the iron manufacturing industry will be given in the later town histories.

In the towns of Butler, Rose, Sodus, Marion and Walworth the Niagara limestone occurs and has been extensively burned for lime. A slaty limestone is found near Newark, and also in the southern part of Williamston, from which lime has been made. The Niagara limestone before mentioned furnishes in man}' localities excellent building stone.

Wavne county contains 356,513 acres of land, of which about 275, 0(H) acres are improved.

At the time of the first settlement of this locality by white men, the streams of the county abounded with fish. Salmon ran up Salmon Creek and other streams in great numbers, and they added much to the food supply of the pioneers. The land was covered with a thick forest, principally of hard wood trees, such as oak, hickory, beech, birch and maple, with some soft woods on the low lands. The cutting away of these forests by the pioneers was a task of great magnitude ; but it gave them a source of cash income at a time when there was almost no other, through the manufacture of potash from the ashes of the burned logs, and in later years from the timber and fire-wood. The forests were filled with wild animals — deer, bears, wolves, all of which were

WAYNE COUNTY.

numerous, with such smaller animals as the beaver in very early years, the raccoon, hedgehog, squirrels, etc. While the bears and wolves were destructive of domestic animals, they with the numerous deer furnished an ever-ready source of food to the settlers.

Chapter II

Indian Occupation of Western New York— Treatment of Indians by White Men — Relation of the Indians to Wayne County — The Jesuits and their Work — Local Operations in the War of the Revolution — Indian Remains.

The first white man who penetrated the wilderness which once covered what is now the State of New York, found its northern and western parts inhabited and dominated by nations of that remarkable race of copper-colored people whom we call Indians — in reality the native Americans. The question whence they originated is shrouded in mystery and so must remain ; but we well know whither they are going. Unnumbered ages hence their disappearance from the earth may be enveloped in the deep oblivion that now hides their origin.

The detailed history of this race cannot be followed in this volume, nor is it desirable that it should be; for it is writ upon the glowing pages of the past by many gifted pens. As to the right or wrong of their conquest and rapidly approaching extinction, wise men differ. At the foundation of the question is the fact that in the world's history, civilization must advance at whatever cost to the uncivilized; the ignorant must go down before the educated; the weak before the strong; might, if not always right, will triumph. If the Indians with their undisciplined passions fired by the white man's rum, armed with the guns placed in their hands in exchange for valuable furs at a tenfold profit, driven from their hunting grounds when no longer a source of gain to the invaders — if they finally retaliated and committed bar. barities, the record of which fills the pages of history with horror, what else should have been expected? The fact remains that there is not an instance on record where the natives did not receive the first visit of the white man with hospitality and kindness. We may well, therefore, give a thought to what it was that produced the great change in 2 the attitude of the Indian towards his Caucasian superior. The former never desired to part with his lands; and the latter stole what he could not buy. 1 The Indians retaliated by murdering" the thieves. With Champlain shooting with his terrorizing gunpowder upon the guileless Iroquois in 1600 on the lake that bears his name; 2 with the sanctimonious Jesuits beguiling the natives to secure their allegiance — and their furs — for France; with the sagacious Dutch following Hendrick Hudson up the great river that bears his name, within a year or two after Champlain killed his first Indian a little farther north ; and with the English landing on the Atlantic shores a few years later, to hoodwink the natives out of their lands — with all this going on it is scarcely a marvel that the gradually aroused Indians became revengful. The correspondence of that lifelong friend of the Indians, Sir William Johnson, with his superiors, is one long catalogue of remonstrances against the wrongs of every kind to which the natives were subjected. The Iroquois Indians, as they were first called by the French, known as the Five Nations (subsequently the Six Nations) by the English, were established across the State of New York beginning with the Mohawks on the east, with the ( hieidas (with whom the Tuscaroras were subsequently practically amalgamated), the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas next, in the order named. What is now Erie county, and contiguous territory on the west and north, was occupied by a nation called by the French the Neuter Nation, from the fact that they endeavored to and generally did, remain at peace with

1 As late as July. 1755, an Iroquois chief, in addressing Sir William Johnson, said: "Brother — you desire us to unite and live together and draw all our allies near us; but we shall have no land left either for ourselves or them, for your people when they buy a small piece of land of us, by stealing make it large. We desire such things may not be done, and that your people may not be suffered to buy any more of our lands. Sometimes it is sought of two men who are not the proper owners of it. The land which reaches down from Oswego to Schanandowana (Wyoming) we beg may not be settled by Christians. The governor of Pennsylvania bought a whole tract and only paid for half, and we desire that you will let him know that we will not part with the other half, but keep it." This seems a reasonable speech for a savage, regarding what he believed to be his own property; and even an Indian is likely to light when he is robbed.

- The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at them. 1 raised my arquebus, and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot; one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arquebus. The Iroquois were greatly astonished seeing two men killed so instantaneously. — From Champlain 's 'Journal.

the warlike Eries, still farther west, and the Iroquois on the east, until they were all finally subdued by the latter, long before the coming of white men. From that time onward until the natives were conquered by the new comers the Iroquois roamed over a large part of the country, conquering and triumphant, lords of the soil that bore them.

As far as relates to the territory of which this work is to treat, it was shared alike by the Cayugas in its eastern part, and by the Senecas in the western part. "The Cayugas possessed the country between the Onondagas and the Senecas. It was laved on the north by Lake Ontario, and stretched southward about ninety miles. It contained all of the county of Seneca, the easterly half of Wayne, and western parts of Cayuga and Tompkins. Their main stations were on the east and west sides of Cayuga Lake a little south of the outlet. Canoga, their chief town, was on the east side of the lake. Here they had a castle." 1 The Senecas possessed the whole country to the westward indefinitely. Among these nations of Indians came that remarkable order of French religious enthusiasts to convert them to Catholicism and secure their fealty to the French crown. From 1611 to towards the close of that century, priests of that order came over to Montreal and from there penetrated all sections of what is now Northern and Central New York, enduring almost unparalleled privations and often suffering death in the cause. They were the discoverers of the Onondaga Salt Springs and taught the natives how to boil the water to obtain the coveted article. In some instances they appear to have made religious impressions upon the Indians, but with little permanent results toward civilizing them. With La Salle, in 1669, came two of the Jesuit missionaries, De Casson and De Galinee. The party landed on the 10th of August at the mouth of Irondequoit Bay. Father Chaumonot, who labored among the Onondagas, had been in this region thirteen years earlier. In November, 1668, the Senecas sent to Montreal a request that a mission be established among them. Father Fremin came on promptly and found a pestilence raging among the nation, and called Father Gamier from the Onondagas to his aid. Fremin established himself in what is now Ontario county four miles southeast from Victor, and there founded the Mission of St. Michael. He labored there until 1671, while Gamier founded the Mission of St. James, also in what is now Victor, and remained until 1683.