PIONEER SETTLERS IN SENECA COUNTY 23 



who was a well-known and eccentric person. The 

 story is told of him that once when he was preach- 

 ing " fire and brimstone " he made a rather pointed 

 personal application to an unregenerate tough in 

 the audience. Some days later the two men met 

 in the roadway, and the man of the pew declared 

 he had been insulted and offered to fight. The 

 minister replied that what he said was true and 

 resorted to argument, but the sinner insisted that 

 he was going to thrash him. The Reverend Rob- 

 erts got down from his horse, took off his coat, say- 

 ing: " Lay there, shadbelly, while I lick this sin- 

 ner 1 " When he had finished the job he put on his 

 coat and rode away singing : 



" Oh how happy are they who their Savior obey 

 And have laid up their treasure above ! " 



PIONEER SETTLERS IN SENECA COUNTY 



My parents had nine children, of whom only 

 one beside myself William H. B. Roberts 

 is now living; and lived during the whole of their 

 married life in the township of East Varick my 

 mother lived more than fifty years in the house 

 which I have described and which still remains. 

 This township of East Varick, which was about 

 eight miles long, extending from Cayuga Lake to 



