50 



HISTOHY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



the tent-pole with his tomahawk, roused the dying to life, and at 

 length drove the whole colony to the river bank. 



"Worse and worse! When the Germiins saw the slender canoes 

 they screamed with terror, and loudly refused to intrust themselves 

 to such shells. The woodsmen, however, put the women, the chil- 

 dren, and the sick into the canoes almost by main force, and launched 

 forth into the river, while the men followed by land. Patterson told 

 them to keep the Indian trail, but as this sometimes went back upon 

 the hills and out of sight of the river, they dared not follow it for 

 fear of being lost. So they scrambled along the shore as best they 

 could, keeping their eyes fixed on the flotilla as if their lives depended 

 upon it. They tumbled over the banks; they tripped up over the 

 roots; where the shores were rocky they waded in the cold water be- 

 low. Eut the canoes, gliding merrily downward, wheeled at last into 

 the Chemung, and the men also, accomplishing their tedious travel 

 along the shore, emerged from the wilderness, and beheld with joy the 

 little cabins clustered around the Painted Post. 



"Here their troubles ended. Flour and coifee from Tioga Point 

 were waiting for them, and when Peter, the baker, turned out warm 

 loaves from his oven and derUeher A-^/e steamed from the kettles with 

 grateful fragrance, men and women crowded around the guide, hailed 

 him as their deliverer from wild beasts, and begged his pardon for 

 their bad behavior. 



" It was now December. They had been three months in the wil- 

 derness, and were not in a condition to move onward to the Genesee. 

 Patterson, with thirty of the-most hardy men, kept on, however, and 

 opened the road up the Conhocton to Dansville and the place of des- 

 tination. The others remained throu<5h the winter of 1793 at Painted 

 Post. ' They were the simplest creatures I ever saw,' said an old 

 lad}^; Hhey had a cow with them, and they loved it as if it was a 

 child. When tlour was scarcest, they used to feed her with bread.' 



" The whole colony was conducted to the Genesee in the spring. 

 There was at this time a single settler in the valley of the Conhocton 

 above the settlements near Painted Post. The fate of the first potato 

 crop of the Upper Conhocton is worthy of record. This settler had 

 cultivated a little patch of potatoes the previous summer, and of the 

 fruits of his labor a few ])ecks yet remained buried in a hole. The 

 Germans snuffed the precious vegetables, and determined to have 

 them. Finding they could not be restrained, Patterson told them to 

 go on, and if the owner swore at them to say 'thankee, thankee/ as if 

 receiving a present. This they did, and the settler lost his treasures 

 to the last potato. The guide paid him five times their value, and 

 bade him to go to Tioga Point for seed." 



BENJAMIN PATTERSON. 



Benjamin Patterson was born in Loudon Co., Ya., in 

 1759. His mother was a cousin of Daniel Boone, the 

 famous pioneer hunter of Kentucky. Mr. Patterson, be- 

 fore his removal to this county, resided at Northumber- 

 land, Pa. During the war of the Revolution he served in 

 a rifle corps, organized for the defense of the frontiers, and 

 in this perilous service met with many exciting adventures. 

 He was the Nimrod of the Susquehanna and of Western 

 New York, the most renowned hunter and practical woods- 

 man of his period. His military and hunting excursions 

 gave him a better knowledge of the geography of the 

 country than any of the pioneers of his times, and he be- 

 came distinguished as the best guide from Northumberland 

 to Lake Erie. He was frequently employed by Col. Wil- 

 liamson to lead parties of immigrants through the wilder- 

 ness in the early settlement of Steuben County and the 

 adjoining region, and to superintend many pioneer improve- 

 ments, in which his practical judgment, skill in woodcraft, 

 and personal integrity rendered him of great service. 



Physically, Mr. Patterson was of a medium height, 

 squarely built, and of a powerful and agile frame. He 

 possessed a remarkable memory and powers of narration, so 

 that, although not polished by the refinements of education. 



he could interest and engage the most cultivated minds for 

 hours at a time with the relation of his adventures, and the 

 stores of knowledge gathered from observation and experi- 

 ence. He was a keen observer, and a man of intelligence, 

 judgment, and strict integrity. He settled in Steuben 

 County in 1797, and reared a large family. (See Histories 

 of Erwin, Corning, and Lindley.) 



CHAPTER XL 



ONTARIO COUNTY. 



Steuben Included in Ontario— Indian Council at Canandaigua— Two 

 Towns Organized in what is now Steuben County — Col. Williamson, 

 First Judge— Eleazer Lindley, First Member of Assembly— First 

 Member of Congress — Count Liancourt. 



Prom 1789 to 1796 the history of Steuben County is 

 included in that of Ontario. The county of Ontario was 

 set off from Herkimer by an act of the Legislature in the 

 winter of 1789. It embraced the entire territory of the 

 State of New York west of the Massachusetts pre-emption 

 line. Of this great wilderness county, Canandaigua was 

 chosen as the seat of justice. " Mr. Phelps, having select- 

 ed the foot of Canandaigua Lake as a central locality in his 

 purchase, and as combining all the advantages which have 

 since made it pre-eminent among the beautiful villages of 

 Western New York, erected a building for a store-house, on 

 the bank of the lake. The next movement was to make 

 some primitive roads, to get to and from the site that had 

 been selected. Men were employed at Geneva who under- 

 brushed and continued a sleigh-road from where it had been 

 previously made, on Flint Creek, to the foot of Canandai- 

 gua Lake, following pretty much the old Indian trail. 

 When this was done a wagon-road was made near where 

 Manchester now is, at the head of navigation on Canandai- 

 gua Outlet." 



Joseph Smith was the first settler, who moved his family 

 from Geneva and occupied the log store-house, in the spring 

 of 1789. He soon after built a block-house on Main 

 Street, and opened the first tavern. His first stock of 

 liquor was obtained from Niagara, Upper Canada, by canoe- 

 freightage from the mouth of the Genesee River. 



Early in May, 1789, Gen. Israel Chapin arrived at Can- 

 andaigua and selected it as his residence, erecting a log 

 house near the outlet. Connected with him, and with the 

 contemplated surveys and land-sales, were Nathaniel Gor- 

 ham, Jr., Frederick Saxton, Benjamin Gardner, and Daniel 

 Gates. Mr. Walker, an agent of Phelps and Gorham, soon 

 after arrived with a party, and opened a log land-office on 

 the site which Mr. Phelps afterwards selected for his resi- 

 dence. 



The late Capt. Horatio Jones, who was one of the first 

 at the place, revisited it in August, 1789. He thus 

 describes its appearance at that time : •' There was a great 

 change. When we left in the fall of '88 there was not a 

 solitary person there; when I returned, fourteen manths 

 afterwards, the place was full of people, — residents, survey- 

 ors, explorers, adventurers ; houses were going up ; it was 

 a busy, thriving place." 



