18 HISTORY OF LUMBER INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK. 



the Connewango Creek, in the town of Poland, near Jamestown. This 

 mill was erected in 1805, and by rafting* the boards in the Conne- 

 wango, a tributary of the upper Allegheny, the product Mas taken to 

 Pittsburg, the nearest market. 



In Cattaraugus County the tirst lumber was rafted down the Alle- 

 gheny River in 1807. The rafts were owned by Bibbins Follett, Jede- 

 diah Strong, and Dr. Bradley. The first sawmill in this county was 

 built in 1801 at South Valley by the Quaker colony, and the lumber 

 for the first raft may have been put in the river there, although in 

 1807 there were mills at Olean and Portville. 



Every navigable river in the southern part of the State has been 

 utilized at one time or another by lumbermen. Board rafts, bound 

 for tide water or "tide,"" could be seen on the Chemung and Tioga 

 rivers as late as in the sixties, and on the upper Allegheny they were 

 a prominent feature of the lumber business until the construction of 

 the railroad along the river shore from Pittsburg to its headwaters in 

 Cattaraugus County, N. Y. The last of them went down the river 

 about 1890. 



RAFTING ON THE UPPER HUDSON. 



The Hudson River was never used by raftsmen below Albany; for 

 a raft could make no progress unless both wind and tide were favor- 

 able. The lumber was therefore carried in sailing vessels from Albany 

 to New York or to the old country. 



Mrs. Grant 1 in describing rafting on the upper Hudson, in 1768, 

 says: 



It so happened that the river had been higher than usual that spring, and, in con- 

 sequence, exhibited a succession of very amusing scenes. The settlers, whose 

 increase toward Stillwater had been for three years past incredibly great, set up 

 sawmills on every stream, for the purpose of turning to account the fine timber which 

 they cleared in great quantities off the new lands. The planks they drew in sledges 

 to the side of the great river; and when the season arrived that swelled the stream 

 to its greatest height, a whole neighborhood assembled and made their joint stock 

 into a large raft, which was floated down the river with a man or two on it, who, 

 with long poles, were always ready to steer it clear of those islands or shallows which 

 might impede its course. There is something serenely majestic in the easy progress 

 of those large bodies on the full stream of this copious river. Sometimes one sees a 

 whole family transported on this simple conveyance; the mother calmly spinning, 

 the children sporting about her, and the father fishing at one end and watching its 

 safety at the same time. These rafts were taken down to Albany, and put on board 

 vessels there for conveyance to New York; sometimes, however, it happened that, 

 as they proceeded very slowly, dry weather came on by the time they reached the 

 Flats, and it became impossible to carry them further; in that case they were 

 deposited in great triangular piles opposite our door. (See PL IV.) 



The greater portion of the pine on the slopes along Lake Champlain 

 was sent to market in rafts, through the lake and down its outlet — the 

 Sorel River— to Canada, whence it was exported to England. 



" Memoirs of an American Lady. By Mrs. Anne Grant. Albany : Joel Munsell, 1876 



