202 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



disintegrating rock being held by the roots of a new growth 

 of pine, while around the surface caving gradually away 

 leaves a succession of pyramids of stone, each crowned 

 with a single tree. Wild animals were plenty, and found 

 a safe refuge among these almost inaccessible rocks. At a 

 height of from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet above 

 the level of the river a wall of scraggy rock projects in a 

 straight line from the steep hill-side on each side of the 

 valley. The tops of the hills rising three or four hundred 

 feet above this wall, covered with a thin second growth of 

 pine, form an almost level line where they shut off the 

 lower valley, less than half a mile wide in its general 

 course through the town. In passing through the valley 

 the view is constantly obstructed by steep headlands and 

 walls of rock, which give additional interest to the scenery. 

 Phones Green lived below Baker's Mill, where the old 

 reformation meetings were held. He was a grandfather 

 of Capt. Luther White, the oldest resident of the town of 

 Cameron now living. Baker's Mill, a mile below the vil- 

 lage of Cameron, on the right bank of the river, was the 

 site of the first saw- and grist-mill in the town. Mr. Had- 

 ley built the saw-mill, and Capt. Samuel Baker, who came 

 to the town in 1816, built the first grist-mill, in company 

 with a Mr. Warden, the same year. Mr. Baker was ac- 

 companied by his grandson, James B. Wheeler, then a boy 

 of seven years, who succeeded to the mill, several times 

 rebuilt, and now occupied by his sons, Grattan II. and 

 John D. Wheeler. Urbane Baker, a son of the original 

 owner, is still living upon the hill near by. A carding- 

 machine was also erected there by Amos Caldwell, and 

 operated by John Place several years. John Dean came 

 from Massachusetts, and located near the mill soon after 

 Mr. Baker. He is still living in the valley, at the ad- 

 vanced age of ninety years. His wife is eighty-four years 

 of age. 



Isaac Santee, father of John Santee, of Hornellsville, ' 

 and William and Jesse Santee, of Cameron, settled in the 

 valley, a mile from the Canisteo line, in 1820. 



John Hallett, who kept tavern near the bridge, half a 

 mile west of Cameron, Isaac Santee, Joseph Butler, and 

 Michael Loughry, were the only residents in the town, west 

 of Cameron Corners, when Capt. Luther White settled 

 where he now lives, near the Santee place, in 1824. Amasa 

 Downs kept a tavern at that time on his farm, and James 

 Brownell, who was a professional constable, nearly always 

 managing to get elected to that office, also lived there. 

 John F. French had a custom tannery on the creek, near 

 the Methodist parsonage. John French was married to 

 Almira, daughter of Matthew Dickey, in 1820, this being 

 the first marriage in Cameron of which we find a record. 

 Captain White, who is still living where he first settled 

 with his grandson John White, was for many years a 

 prominent citizen and leading lumberman of the Canisteo 

 Valley. 



Elisha Leach, one of the first settlers in Cameron, south 

 of the river, located on South Hill in 1825, and in 1835 

 was joined by his father-in-law, Hirah Chase, a native of 

 Rhode Island, who was the father of Elias D. Chase. 

 Judah, Hirah, and John B. Chase, a Baptist preacher, 

 came from Yates County, in 1832, and settled near Elisha 



Leach, two miles south of the village of Cameron. Elias 

 Chase, of Cameron, is a son of Hirah; Charles, Eli, and 

 Levi Chase, farmers of Cameron, are sons of Judah Chase. 



Reuben Drake, father of George W. Drake, of Cameron 

 village, was an early settler on that part of the South Hill 

 called " The Swale." Another son, Peter H. Drake, occu- 

 pies the old homestead. 



Chauncey P. Hubbard, who entered the south part of 

 Cameron in the extensive forests on the south branch of the 

 Tuscarora Creek, in 1832, built a saw-mill, and became 

 soon well known for his enterprise and public spirit. It 

 was mainly through his efforts that the Presbyterian 

 Church of Cameron was organized, on the Canisteo River. 

 The old water-mill, in the south part of the town, near his 

 residence, is still running. His eldest son. Rev. Albert W. 

 Hubbard, is a missionary in Turkey, under the American 

 Board of Foreign Missions. 



One of the earliest marriages in the town of Cameron 

 was that of John French. 



Among the first settlers in the north part of the town 

 was Elias Mason, Esq., who came from Madison County, 

 and in 1815 located on the farm now occupied by his son, 

 C. W. Mason, as a dairy-farm and cheese-factory. At that 

 date there was no inhabitant between Cameron Corners and 

 the church ground, a mile and a half east. Elias Mason 

 was postmaster of North Cameron for thirty years, the 

 post-office being at his house until the cheese-factory was 

 established, in 1870, when it was moved to the " Gulf" 

 James and Henry Knickerbocker came from Chenango 

 County, and settled on the ridge in northeastern Cameron, 

 in 1826, and cleared ten acres of land, from which they 

 obtained 305 bushels of wheat the next year, worth, at that 

 time, fifty cents a bushel. Afterwards, Henry Knicker- 

 bocker kept one of the numerous " Gulf" taverns for sev- 

 eral years. Andrew Bates, also from Chenango County, 

 joined them soon after their arrival, and John Shaw settled 

 a mile north, towards the Big Gulf, where Leonard Porter 

 kept a tavern, on the road from Cameron Corners (Cameron 

 village) to Bath. Timothy Carpenter, father of Uriah, 

 and Alva Carpenter, came from Yates County, and settled 

 where Uriah Carpenter now lives, in the north part of the 

 town, near the Thurston line, in 1825. Joseph Plaisted, 

 from Rhode Island, settled a mile south, and N. Rouse 

 farther west. Mr. Rouse is well remembered by the old 

 settlers as the popular '• fiddler " of his day. The Shingle 

 school-house was built, near the Plaistead place, in 1828. 



Samuel Y. Pugsley came from Dutchess County, and 

 settled in the north of Cameron, south of Stocking Creek, 

 in 1841. John Barber was an early settler west on the 



ridge. 



" The Gulf" is a deep, dark ravine forming the bed of 

 Stocking Creek ; commences some distance above the cheese- 

 factory, and continues three miles below, including in its 

 curve Bonny Hill, a circular hill three miles across, in the 

 northern parts of Cameron and Thurston, and is filled with 

 the original growth of hemlock. This deep, narrow gulf 

 is crossed by roads only at two points — Yost's Mill, in 

 Thurston, and at the North Cameron post-office on the old 

 county road, where access to the bottom of the ravine is 

 had, at the junction of a small branch from the. south. The 



