172 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE VILLAGE. 



In 1793, Col. Williamson commenced the settlement of 

 this village, called Bath, from Lady Bath, of England, a 

 member of the Pulteney family. " Before the end of the 

 season," he says, " not less than fifteen families were resi- 

 dent in the village. Early in the season a saw-mill had 

 been finished, and previous to the setting in of winter a 

 grist-mill, with a saw-mill nearer the town, were in great 

 forwardness." The first-mentioned saw-mill stood on or 

 near the site of the old " glass-mill," on the road leading to 

 Kanona. The grist-mill stood near the Conhocton bridge. 

 Gen. McClure, in giving an account of his arrival in Bath 

 in 1793, says : " W^e arrived at Bath, and put up at the 

 only house of entertainment in the village, — if it could be 

 called a house. Its construction was of pitch-pine logs, in 

 two apartments, one story high, and kept by a very kind 

 and obliging English family of the name of Metcalfe. 

 This house was the only one in town, except a similar one 

 erected for the temporary abode of Capt. Williamson, which 

 answered the purpose of parlor, dining-room, and land 

 office. There were, besides, some shanties for mechanics and 

 laborers." 



The first clearing in the village, that of the Pulteney 

 Square, was made in the spring of 1794, by Mr. Henry 

 McElwee, a young man from the north of Ireland, who 

 had arrived a few months before, ^y this time two saw- 

 mills were in operation, and the green lumber was rapidly 

 converted into buildings. Houses were erected as fast as 

 thirty or forty men could build them. Col. Williamson, 

 expecting a large number of visitors within three or four 

 days, desired the erection of a building for their accommo- 

 dation, 40 by 16 feet, with the utmost possible dispatch. 

 He laid his plans before Gen. McClure, who had charge of 

 a large force of carpenters. They set to work, and in forty- 

 eight hours had the building completed. For this suc- 

 cessful exploit Col. Williamson paid the generous sum of 

 $400, and had it advertised in the New York and Albany 

 papers, which had the effect of drawing public attention to 

 the new settlement. This is only one example of the rest- 

 less energy and activity of Col. Williamson's administration. 

 He galloped everywhere through the sparsely-settled coun- 

 try, over distances which would now be considered long 

 journeys by rail, stirring up the people, and forwarding the 

 interests of his estate. " People heard of him afar off, — 

 in New England, in Virginia, and in Canada. The bankers 

 of Albany and New York became familiar with his signa- 

 ture. Englishmen and Scotchmen were aroused from their 

 homes, and persuaded to cross the ocean for Genesee estates, 

 and hearty young emigrants of the better sort — farmers 

 and mechanics of some substance — were met upon their 

 landing by recommendations to leave the old settlements 

 behind them, and try their fortunes in Williamson's woods. 

 Pioneers from below pushed their canoes and barges up the 

 rivers, and men of the East toiled wearily through the 

 forest with their oxen and sledges. Not a few Virginia 

 planters, with their great households, abandoned their 

 barren estates beyond the Potomac, and performed marches 

 up the Susquehanna Valley and over the Laurel Ridge in 

 much the same style (saving the camels) as the ancient 

 Mesopotamian patriarchs shifted their quarters,— young- 



sters and young ladies making the journey gayly on horse- 

 back, while the elderly rode in ponderous chaises, secured 

 against catastrophes by ropes and props, and the shoulders 

 of their negroes. Several such cavalcades came over the 

 Lycoming road. One is yet remembered with some interest 

 by a few, as containing a pair of distinguished belles whose 

 fame went before them, and who were met on their descent, 

 half frozen, from the mountains in mid-winter, at the 

 Painted Post Hotel, by a couple of no less distinguished 

 sprouts of Northern gentility, one of whom was afterwards 

 so fortunate as to gain the hand of one of the frost-bitten 

 beauties."* 



In 1796, Colonel Williamson advertised to the country 

 at large that grand races would be held at Bath. " At the 

 distance of half a mile from the village a race-course of a 

 mile in circuit was cleared and carefully grubbed, and all the 

 resources of the place were brought forth for the entertain- 

 ment of as many gentlemen of distinction and miscellaneous 

 strangers as might honor the festival with their presence. 

 But what probability was there that such a festival would 

 be celebrated with success in the midst of ' a wilderness 

 of 900,000 acres?' From Niagara to the Mohawk were 

 but a few hundred scattered cabins, and in the south a 

 dozen ragged settlements contained a greater part of the 

 civilized population till you reached Wyoming. But Colonel 

 Williamson did not mistake the spirit of the times. On 

 the day and at the place appointed for the race sports- 

 men from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were in 

 attendance. The high bloods of Virginia and Maryland, 

 the fast boys of Jersey, the wise jockeys of Long Island, 

 men of Ontario, Pennsylvania, and Canada, settlers, chop- 

 pers, gamesters, and hunters, to the number of 1500 

 or 2000, met on the Pine Plains to see horses run, — a 

 number as great, considering the region where they met, 

 as now assemble at State fairs and mass-meetings. Men 

 of blood and spirit made the journey from the Potomac 

 and the Hudson on horseback, supported by the high 

 spirit of the ancients to endure the miseries of blind trails 

 and log taverns. The races passed off brilliantly. Colonel 

 Williamson himself, a sportsman of spirit and distinction, 

 entered a Southern mare named Virginia Nell ; High Sheriff 

 Dunn entered Silk Stockings, a New Jersey horse, — quad- 

 rupeds of renown even to the present day. Money was plenty 

 and betting lively. Silk Stockings was victorious. . . . 



'' The great race-course was not often used during Wil- 

 liamson's time for the purpose for which it was made. It 

 was chiefly valuable as a public drive for the few citizens 

 who were so prosperous as to keep carriages. There was, 

 however, a course on the land-office meadows south of the 

 village which was at different times the scene of sport." 



The building erected for a theatre was of logs, and stood 

 at the corner of Steuben and Morris Streets. " A troop 

 of actors from Philadelphia, kept, we believe, at the ex- 

 pense of the agents, entertained for a time the resident and 

 foreign gentry with dramatic exhibitions of great splendor." 



In 1794, Bath was threatened with an invasion by Col. 

 Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Canada. Col. Williamson 

 was at that time interested in a settlement at Sodus Bay. 



* McMaster's Histpry. 



