160 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



of the farm there, and purchased a farm in the Conhocton 

 Valley, one mile north of the village of Avoca, where he 

 now resides, a view of which, with his improvements, may 

 be seen on another page of this work. 



Mr. Cotton has spent his life thus far as an agriculturist, 

 and is known as a representative farmer. He is identified 

 with the Democratic party in politics, and represents the 

 unswerving members of his party. While a resident of 

 Dansville he officiated as justice of the peace for one term, 

 and since his residence in the town of Avoca he has repre- 

 sented his town for two terms, 1875-76, on the Board of 



Supervisors. In the fall of 1877 he was the Democratic 

 nominee for member in his district, and although unsucces- 

 ful in the district, received a large majority in his own town, 

 notwithstanding the regular majority was on the Republican 

 side. Mr. Cotton is interested in all matters of local in- 

 terest tending to benefit society, a man of resolution and 

 will to carry forward to a successful completion whatever 

 he conceives to be right. He belongs to the class of thrifty, 

 enterprising farmers who represent the intelligent agricultu- 

 rists of the county. 



Their children are Bayard, Sarah, Charles 0., and Eliza. 



»s^3iOS*-4 — ^ 



BATH. 



-o^ 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



Bath is the largest town of Steuben County. It con- 

 tains an area of 57,212 acres, of which 38,620 acres are im- 

 proved lands, and 17,892 acres unimproved. Of this latter 

 12,708 acres are timbered lands. The town is centrally 

 located in the county, and is bounded by Avoca, Wheeler, 

 and Urbana on the north, Bradford on the east, Campbell, 

 Thurston, and Cameron on the south, and Howard on the 

 west. 



The surface of the town is broken and hilly. The 

 Conhocton Valley, extending southeast tlirough the centre, 

 divides the town into two nearly equal parts. The south 

 half is a hilly upland, and the north half consists of a series 

 of wide valleys, broken by several steep and isolated hills. 

 The streams are the Conhocton River and its tributaries, 

 Five-Mile and Mud Creeks from the north, and Campbell's 

 and Stockton's Creeks from the south. The Crooked or 

 Keuka Lake Valley extends southeast, and opens into the 

 Conhocton Valley at Bath, three hundred and forty feet 

 above the lake. The soil is chiefly a gravelly and clayey 

 loam, with a deep alluvium in the valleys. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



The first settlement in this town was made at Bath 

 village, in 1793, by Capt. Charles Williamson, agent for 

 the Pulteney estate, with fifteen famiUes, mostly Scotch and 

 Germans. On the 3d day of June, 1792, Capt. Williamson 

 left the small settlement at the mouth of the Lycoming 

 River, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, and entered 

 the wilderness northward. In ten days he reached the 

 Cowanesque Creek. He caused a road to be made across 

 the country, over mountains and valleys hitherto deemed 

 impassable, which excited the curiosity of the frontier in- 

 habitants of Pennsylvania, and many were induced to ex- 

 plore the unknown wilderness to the north. Many turned 

 back disgusted, while others pressed forward, pleased with 

 the prospects off"ered in the new country. It was thus that 

 several settlements were begun in the south part of the 

 county, the principal of which was on the Conhocton River. 



The village of Bath was laid out in the midst of a wilder- 

 ness of 900,000 acres. Early in the season of 1793 a saw- 

 mill was built, and before the winter set in a grist-mill was 

 finished. In the year 1794, several new settlements were 

 made along the Conhocton, in Pleasant Valley and Bartles' 

 Hollow. At the same time Bath increased in population. 

 On the most convenient sites mills were built, and roads 

 were opened, presenting throughout the country a scene of 

 enterprise and industry. So great was the influx of popu- 

 lation into the county, early in the year 1796, that Bath 

 and a district of country eight miles round were found to 

 contain over 800 inhabitants. There were also two schools, 

 one grist-mill, and five saw-mills. 



The following-named persons were some of the earliest 

 settlers of Bath : Dugald and Charles Cameron, Thomas 

 Metcalfe, Hector McKenzie, Andrew Smith, George Mc- 

 Clure, James McDonald, Henry McElwee, James Reese, 

 Robert Campbell, William Dunn, William Kersey, John 

 Wilson, George D. Cooper, Daniel McKenzie, and Gus- 

 tavus and Brown Gillespie. The first saw- and grist-mills 

 were erected by Capt. Williamson in 1793, and the first 

 tavern was opened the same year by John Metcalfe. 

 Charles Williamson Dunn, born in 1794, was the first 

 white male child born in the town. The settlement was 

 besun in 1793, and " before the end of the season," says 

 Mr. Williamson, " not less than fifteen families were resi- 

 dent in the village." 



On New Year's day, 1794, Mr. Henry McElwee, a young 

 man from the north of Ireland, arrived in Bath. He sub- 

 sequently gave his impressions substantially as follows : " I 

 found a few shanties standing in the wood. Williamson 

 had his house where Will Woods has since lived, and the 

 Metcalfes kept a log tavern above the Presbyterian church. 

 I went to the tavern and asked for supper and lodging. 

 They said they could give me neither, for their house was 

 full. I could get nothing to eat. An old Dutchman was 

 sitting there, and he said to me, ' Young man, if you will 

 go with me you shall have some mush and milk for your 

 supper, and a deer-skin to lie on with your feet to the fire 



