TOWN OF BRADFORD. 



193 



the peace eight years, was town commissioner of schools, 

 and served one term as member of Assembly. His chil- 

 dren are Alonzo, Isaac, Joseph, Thomas, Catherine, and 

 Mary. 



Eli is Thomas settled the first farm on the hill north of 

 the village of Bradford, on which Benjamin Whitehead 

 now lives ; he held the office of commissioner of highways 

 in 1815. 



Peter Rose was also an early settler on the same farm, and 

 the first physician in the town. His children were Jesse, 

 Maria, E., and Ira ; the latter of whom, returning late at 

 night from hunting, while hanging up his rifle, accidentally 

 discharged it, and the ball passed through the floor and 

 bed above, and lodged in the body of John Sanger, from 

 the efi'ects of which he soon died. 



Capt. Hight settled the first farm north of the farm last 

 mentioned ; killed the first panther, on the Caleb Hedges 

 farm ; killed the first bear. 



The first clearing on Oak Hill — in the south part of the 

 town — was made by John Shriner, on the farm John Kish- 

 paugh now lives on. His children were Cornelius and 

 Low. 



The next clearing was on the farm now owned by E. W. 

 Bennett, by Peter Low, to the extent of 6 acres, and sowed 

 to wheat. Deer destroyed the crop. 



Rumsey Miller settled the farm where Asa Walling now 

 lives. 



David Dennis, in an early day, settled and cleared the 

 farm on which he died. He drew straw with an ox-team 

 from Wayne Hotel, twelve miles, through the pines and 

 hemlocks on Mud Creek, to take his stock through the first 

 winter. He went to mill in the summer on sleighs, with 

 wooden shoes. He married Anna Biggers. His children 

 were Robert, John, David, Joseph, — who live in the town 

 of Bradford, — Sallie, Emily, Fannie, Ira, Hannah, Rachel, 

 —who married Levi Fergus and lives in the town of Brad- 

 ford, — and Maria, who married James Gillmore and also 

 lives in this town. 



Evan F. Thomas came from Luzerne Co., Pa., and set- 

 tled in Bradford in 1827. He followed the trade of a 

 carpenter for thirty-two years, and built two arks for trans- 

 porting grain in the early days of Bradford. Since 1859 

 he has been a farmer, and at the present time owns a farm 

 of 202 acres. 



Capt. John Phelps came from Connecticut, and settled 

 in Yates County in 1780. He was a soldier in the war of 

 1812. He settled in Bradford upon a farm of nearly 300 

 acres of land, known as the Peter Houk farm, in 1836. 

 He was a successful farmer, and raised a large family. He 

 died in 1856. 



James D. Morris came from New Jersey, and settled in 

 Bradford, in 1820. He helped clear the land upon the 

 farm now owned by his son, Frank Morris. At his death, 

 which occurred in 1862, he owned 240 acres. 



Benjamin Whitehead came with his father, Charles 

 Whitehead, who settled in Jersey, now Orange, in 1827. 

 Benjamin Whitehead settled in Bradford, upon lot 9, where 

 he now lives, in 1847. He is a successful farmer, and 

 has raised a large family. His farm now comprises 288 

 acres. 



25 



Hosea Longwell was born in Sussex Co., N. J., Aug. 8, 

 1811, and is, therefore, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

 He is the son of James Longwell and Sarah Carver. On 

 his father's side, his ancestry came from Ireland. His 

 mother was a descendant of the old Puritan family of 

 Carvers, famous in the early history of New England. 

 Hosea Longwell was the first son of a family of twelve 

 children. His father came from New Jersey with his 

 family, and settled in Steuben County in 1822. He reared 

 his family to industry, and instilled in them while young 

 moral lessons which they have always retained. From 1823 

 until his death, which occurred in 1871, he lived in Urbana, 

 and was regarded as one of the representative successful 

 farmers of the town. In 1833 he married Harriet Brun- 

 dage, daughter of John Brundage, one of the pioneer men 

 and representative families of the town of Urbana. In 

 1842, Mr. Longwell moved from Wheeler to Bradford with 

 his family, and settled upon the lot where he now resides. 

 At that time the country was comparatively new, and Mr. 

 Longwell cleared a good share of the land which he now 

 owns, and in place of the log house of half a century ago, 

 has erected a substantial fiirm residence and suitable build- 

 ings, and is surrounded by the results of his ambition and 

 toil. To Mr. and Mrs. Longwell were born eight children, 

 viz., Eliza, who lives at home ; Azariah, who in his early 

 life studied and practiced law in Corning, and died in 1873 ; 

 Frank, who lives in Bradford ; Phoebe, who lives at home ; 

 Hosea, Jr., who married Mary Bale, and is a farmer of 

 Urbana ; Rachel, who married Thomas Spink, and lives in 

 Yates County ; Carver, who married Cassie Switzer, and is 

 a farmer of Bradford ; Eugene, who is a young man of 

 twenty-two, and lives at home. 



Daniel Taylor, in an early day, came with a sack, kettle, 

 and axe on his shoulder, settled and cleared the farm Henry 

 Conelly now lives on. He helped lay out and open the 

 road that runs from Sonora to Mead's Creek, by the way of 

 South Bradford. He made a clearing and put up a log 

 house, and the next year moved in his family, consisting of 

 a wife and nine children. His furniture was simple, — a 

 board table, two rude bedsteads ; some of the family had to 

 sleep on the floor. Some of the family went twelve miles 

 to work to pay the first tax, $1.50. He hauled wheat to 

 Penn Yan, about twenty-five miles, and sold it for three 

 shillings and sixpence per bushel. They dressed in flax 

 garments, winter and summer, and used thorns for pins. 

 His children were Levi, James, Daniel, John, Mary, Phoebe, 

 John, Anna, and Henry, the last of whom served his town 

 as overseer of the poor and assessor. 



John Stilts settled and cleared the farm now owned by 

 Richard Leonard, and lived and died there. He was an 

 industrious man and good citizen. He reared six children. 



Caleb Rock settled where Elijah Shaw lives. 



Philip Morse settled where Jeremiah Inscho lives, about 

 1830. Wolves troubled his sheep some, and Indians some- 

 times came to his house for something to eat. Philip 

 Morse kept the hotel at South Bradford about sixteen 

 years. His children were Levi, Isaac, Stephen, William, 

 Catherine, and Philip. 



The first frame house built on Oak Hill was on the farm 

 John F. Havens now liyes on. 



