48 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



upon the flats, one or two white families at Lewiston, one 

 at Schlosser, a negro with a squaw wife at Tonawanda, an 

 Indian interpreter, and two or three traders at the mouth 

 of Buffalo Creek, and a negro-Indian trader at the mouth 

 of Cattarauo-us Creek. Fort Nia<>;ara was a British i>:arrison. 

 All else was Seneca Indian occupancy. 



In all that relates to other than the natural productions 

 of the soil there was but the cultivation in a rude way of 

 a few acres of flats and intervales on the rivers and creeks, 

 wherever the Indians were located, the productions princi- 

 pally confined to corn, beans, and squashes. In the way of 

 cultivated fruit, there were in several localities a few apple- 

 trees, the seeds of which had been planted by the Jesuit 

 missionaries, — almost the only relic left of the early and 

 long occupancy of this devoted people. At Fort Niagara 

 and Schlosser there were ordinary English gardens. 



The settlement of the Genesee country was first attempted 

 by Oliver Phelps, in 1789. It was attended with great 

 difficulties. There were nothing but Indian paths, and the 

 whole country was one boundless forest. Mr. Phelps left 

 Albany on the 15th of February, and went in a sled as far 

 as Whitestown, on the Mohawk River. From Whitestown 

 he was obliged to proceed on horseback ; he found only a 

 few straggling huts on his way, at the distance of from ten 

 to twenty miles apart, and they only affording shelter from 

 the snow and convenience for fire. On the evening of the 

 third day he reached Greneva. From Geneva to Canan- 

 daigua he found only two families settled, and the latter 

 place consisted of " two small frame houses and a few huts." 

 From Canandaigua to the Genesee River he found only 

 two families residing on the path. At the Genesee River 

 he found an Indian store and tavern, and no other indica- 

 tions of a settlement. 



While Mr. Phelps was thus paving the way for settle- 

 ments west of the lakes and in the valley of the Genesee, 

 New England pioneers were launching their canoes on the 

 Unadilla, and Pennsylvania emigrants were shoving their 

 barges up the Susquehanna, the Chemung, the Conhocton, 

 and the Canisteo. 



The first settlements in Steuben County were made at 

 Painted Post, and in the vicinity of the Chimney Narrows, 

 as early as 1789. Harris, the Indian trader at the Post, 

 was three years earlier. Then came John Harris, Eli and 

 Eldad Mead, George Goodhue, Frederick Calkins, and 

 Ephraim and Ichabod Patterson. 



Frederick Calkins may fairly be regarded as the first 

 farmer of Steuben County, he having felled the first piece 

 of timber and made the first clearing for farming purposes. 

 He was a native of Vermont, and settled on the south side 

 of the Chemung River, on what is now the site of Corning, 

 in 1789.* 



The oldest deed in the county is that of Col. Arthur Er- 

 win, for the town of Erwin. It bears date July 18, 1789, 

 and is signed by Oliver Phelps.f 



The settlement at Canisteo, by Uriah Stephens, Richard 

 Crosby, and their families, was made in the autumn of 1789. 

 Mr. Stephens belonged to a large family of New England 



-:'- See History of Corning, 

 f History of town of Erwin. 



descent, and had settled at an early time in the Wyoming 

 Valley. 



The year 1790 marks the first settlement at Addison, on 

 the Upper Canisteo, in the lower valley of the Conhocton, 

 and in several other parts of the county. It is not, how- 

 ever, our purpose to follow these various settlements in de- 

 tail in this general chapter. They will all be found in their 

 appropriate place in the histories of the several towns. 



ADVENT OF COL. WILLIAMSON. 



The advent of Col. Williamson to this county was the 

 signal for a more general settlement of the country in every 

 direction. We quote the following from McMaster's His- 

 tory : 



" While our foremost pioneers were reaping their first 

 harvests in the valleys of the Canisteo and Chemung, great 

 schemes were on foot in the capital of the British empire 

 for the invasion of the Grenesee wilderness. x\n officer of 

 the royal army had conceived a splendid project for the 

 foundation of a city in the midst of the forest, and, sustained 

 by men of wealth in London, was about to penetrate its 

 utmost thickets to raise up a Babylon among the habita- 

 tions of the owl and the dragon." 



It may be added that Col. Williamson's scheme contem- 

 plated not only a city but a rich and well-populated tribu- 

 tary country. He came to colonize the country with hardy 

 emigrants and industrious settlers of all classes and from 

 every nation, with enterprising artisans, and intelligent, 

 thrifty citizens, and to make the wilderness around him 

 blossom as the rose. Such may be fairly presumed to have 

 been Col. Williamson's scheme, whatever fault may be 

 found with his method of carrying it out. He was cer- 

 tainly a large-minded and liberal promoter of the early 

 settlement of the country, always devising and doing liberal 

 things to forward the interests of colonization in every di- 

 rection. If he came to the wilderness with the visionary 

 project of building a city, it will be admitted that no man 

 before or since his day ever made such a stir in the wilder- 

 ness. No man ever did so much towards the settlement of 

 any country of the same extent as did Col. Charles Wil- 

 liamson during the short ten years of his operations. 



Col. Williamson's first enterprise was to open a high- 

 road from Northumberland to the Grenesee, over mountains 

 and valleys hitherto deemed impassable. The only road 

 leading to the north from the mouth of the West Branch 

 (where Williamsport is now situated) followed the valley 

 of the Susquehanna, leading the traveler who desired to 

 come in this direction a long distance out of his way. A 

 direct road to the Grenesee would cross a ridge of the Alle- 

 ghanies. "An Indian trail, often trod during the Kevolu- 

 tion by war-parties from the fastnesses of the Six Nations, 

 ran over the mountains ; but to open a road through the 

 rugged wilderness which would be passable for wagons was 

 deemed impossible. After a laborious exploration, how- 

 ever, by the agent and a party of Pennsylvanian hunters, a 

 road was located from Boss Farm (now Williamsport, Pa.) 

 to the mouth of the Canaseraga Creek, on the Genesee, a 

 distance of one hundred and fifty miles. This road was 

 opened in the ensuing autumn by a party of German emi- 

 grants under the leadership of Benjamin Patterson, the 



