TOWN OF BATH. 



173 



The forts at Oswego and Niagara were still held by the 

 British, although by the treaty of 1783 they had agreed to 

 evacuate forthwith all military posts held by them within 

 the territory of the United States. It was believed — not 

 without reason — that these posts were held with a view to 

 an attack upon the settlements of Western New York, and, 

 as a pretext to provoke a conflict, Col. Williamson was inter- 

 fered with by the authority of the Canadian Governor, who, 

 on the 16th of August, 1794, sent Lieut. Sheaflfe, a British 

 officer, to inquire by what authority an establishment had 

 been ordered at Sodus, and to require that such a design 

 be immediately relinquished. 



Col. Williamson was not at Sodus at the time, but a 

 letter was left containing the above order. It is said, also, 

 that a quantity of flour belonging to Col. Williamson was 

 seized and carried ofl* by the British. Col. Williamson re- 

 sented the aff'ront ; a spirited controversy ensued ; the Cab- 

 inet at Washington took the matter in hand, and war seemed 

 imminent. 



Gen. McClure, in his manuscript, says : " The adminis- 

 tration at Washington apprised Capt. Williamson of the 

 difficulties that had arisen between this country and Great 

 Britain, and required him to make preparations for defense. 

 He therefore received a colonel's commission from the Gov- 

 ernor of New York, and immediately thereafter sent an 

 express to Albany for one thousand stand of arms, several 

 pieces of cannon, and munitions of war. He lost no time 

 in making the necessary preparations. He gave orders to 

 my friend, Andrew Smith, to prepare timber for picketing 

 on a certain part of our village, and ordered that I should 

 erect block-houses according to his plan. The work went 

 cheerily on. We could rally, in case of alarm, five or six 

 hundred, most of them single men. Our colonel organ- 

 ized his forces into companies. I had the honor of being 

 appointed captain of a light infantry company, and had the 

 privilege of selecting one hundred men, — non-commissioned 

 officers and privates. In a short time my company appeared 

 in handsome uniform. 



" By the instructions of our colonel we mounted guard 

 every night, — exterior as well as interior. Most of our own 

 Indians — whom we supposed were friendly — disappeared, 

 which we thought was a very suspicious circumstance." 



To further fortify the citadel and render it invulnerable 

 to the threatened attack of the enemy, — who, it was sup- 

 posed, had designs of laying waste the valley of the Sus- 

 quehanna and marching on Philadelphia, — Col. William- 

 son employed Mr. Henry McElwee, of Mud Creek, to cut 

 white-oak saplings 18 feet long and 18 inches thick at the 

 butt, to be used for palisades in inclosing the Pulteney Square. 

 A great many of these were made ready ; but the alarm sub- 

 sided, and they were never brought into actual reqviisition. 



The village at this time was only one year old, but it 

 presented a very active and lively appearance. Col. Wil- 

 liamson"^ was everywhere making improvements. The 

 rivers were partially relieved of incumbrances ; roads were 

 opened; bridges were built; farms were cleared. In 1796, 



* Notice of the death of Col. Williamson is found in the " Geneva 

 Expositor" of Jan. 11, 1809. He died in the fall of 1808, while on 

 his passage from New Orleans to Havana, whither he was going as 

 British agent or minister to the Island of Cuba. 



when the county of Steuben was organized, Bath was made 

 the county-seat. The population increased more rapidly 

 than the resources to supply their wants. This, together 

 with the influx of visitors and strangers, attracted by the 

 games and amusements, and especially during the session 

 of the courts, made provisions very scarce in Bath. Money 

 was plenty and hospitality liberal and generous, but the 

 resources of the surrounding country were such, that the 

 good stock of workingmen and farmers who tilled the land 

 found the soil so ungracious that they were not a little 

 straitened for the means of supporting life. 



Col. Williamson transported his first flour from North- 

 umberland and a quantity of pork from Philadelphia. After- 

 wards these luxuries were obtained as best they could be. 

 Flour was brought on pack-horses from Tioga Point, then 

 it was brought in Durham boats from a mill at Jemima 

 Wilkinson's settlement on the outlet of Crooked Lake. As 

 the farming country around grew rich enough to have any 

 surplus to spare, Bath afforded an excellent market. "The 

 Canisteo boy brought over his bag of wheat on a horse, threw 

 it down at the door of the agency-house, and was paid |5 

 a bushel. He drove his bullock across the hills, slaughtered 

 it at the edge of the village, and sold everything from hoof 

 to horn for a shilling a pound. He led over a pack-horse 

 laden with grain, paid all expenses, treated, and took home 

 $18. One old farmer remembers paying $2.25 for a hog's 

 head, " and it was half hair at that." Pleasant Valley sup- 

 plied her quota to the straitened villagers. Said an old 

 settler in that comfortable region : " Bath was just like 

 San Francisco ; straw was a shilling a bundle, and every- 

 thing else in proportion. Money was plenty, but they 

 almost starved out. They once adjourned court because 

 there was nothing to eat. If it hadn't been for the valley 

 the Pine Plains would have been depopulated. After 

 court had been in session two or three days, you would see 

 a black boy come down here on a horse, with a big basket, 

 foraging. He would go around to all the farms and get 

 bread, meat, eggs, or anything that would stay life. Bath 

 was the hungriest place in all creation." The situation 

 thus described will be readily appreciated when it is under- 

 stood that the citizens of the county made court week in 

 Bath a sort of general gathering time, and hence the larders 

 of the village were sometimes speedily exhausted. 



In 1796 a frame court-house was erected. The first 

 Court of Common Pleas was convened on the 21st day of 

 June, 1796. The first Court of General Sessions convened 

 in the autumn of the same year. 



In 1796 a log jail was erected, and stood on the site of 

 the subsequent stone jail, west of the Pulteney Square and 

 north of the present Steuben County Bank. A new brick 

 court-house was erected in 1828, which was subsequently 

 destroyed by fire, and immediately after the present court- 

 house was built on substantially the same foundation and 

 after the same plan. 



In 1804 the village contained three streets, viz.: Liberty, 

 running north from Pulteney Square, and Morris and Steu- 

 ben Streets, running east and west. There were then 25 

 buildings in all in the place, as shown in the engraving in 

 frontispiece, taken from the recollections of Col. William 

 H. Bull, now living in Bath. 



