250 REPORT OF THE 



in this mill was shipped to Ireland. He rafted it down the West Canada Creek, 

 thence down the Mohawk to the Cohoes Falls, and then carted it to the Hudson 

 at Albany, where it was loaded in sloops for the old country. 



In Broome County, 1796, Edward Edwards built a sawmill on the Onondaga 

 stream, at a place which is now in the town of Lisle. He was the first man to run a 

 raft down the Chenango River. For sixty years after the first settlements the staple 

 product of this county was white pine lumber, which was rafted down the Susque- 

 hanna, sometimes to Norfolk, Va. The young men had not seen the world until 

 they made this trip. It was a life of adventure. The river journey brought to their 

 view whatever there was of civilization at that period ; and running the dams was 

 perilous work that furnished material for thrilling narratives on their return. 

 Other business as well as the lumber industry was dependent on the success of the 

 raftsmen, and notes were made payable when " the rafts got back." * 



In Delaware County, Jesse Dickinson, who built a mill about 1788 on Trout 

 Creek, in the town of Tompkins, ran the first raft that went down the west branch 

 of the Delaware River, the lumber being floated all the way to Philadelphia. 



In Chautauqua County, the first lumber floated down the Allegany River was 

 sawed at the mill owned by Dr. Thomas R. Kennedy, on the Conewango Creek, in 

 the town of Poland, near Jamestown. This mill was erected in 1805, and by rafting 

 the boards in the Conewango, a tributary of the Upper Allegany, the product was 

 taken to Pittsburg, the nearest market at that time. 



In Cattaraugus County, the first lumber was rafted down the Allegany River in 

 1807. The rafts were owned by Bibbins FoUett, Jedediah 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 river in the State was utilized at one time or another by the lumber- 

 men. Board rafts, bound for tidewater, or " tide," could be seen on the Chemung 

 and Tioga rivers as late as in the sixties ; and on the Upper Allegany 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., made this method of transportation no longer necessary. The last of them 

 went down the river about 1880. 



* In the town of Franklin, Delaware County, a large willow tree, which formerly stood in the high- 

 way near the house of Judge Wattles, grew from a cane which he walked home with from Philadelphia 

 after " going down the river " upon a raft in the spring, and stuck into the ground after his return. 



