208 



HISTOKY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



the following-named children : Jared, Amos, Jonas, Ben- 

 jamin, Joseph, Ralph, Marcus, Almond, and John, and 

 daughters Permelia (Mrs. Aden J. Pratt, deceased) and 

 Haddassah, who married Daniel Horton, father of Charles 

 Horton, Esq., of Campbell. 



All the sons except Jonas and Benjamin removed to 

 Michigan many years ago. Marcus and John are among 

 the leading merchants and manufacturers of Detroit. Mr. 

 Jonas Stevens, of Campbell, has hanging in his parlors the 

 likenesses of the nine brothers taken in a group, with their 

 mother — then eighty-five years old — and their sister, the 

 late Mrs. Horton. This group was taken at Canton, Mich., 

 on the' occasion of a family reunion, in 1861. Mrs. Ste- 

 vens had five of her grandsons then in the army. Since 

 then Mrs. Stevens, her daughter, Mrs. Horton, and three 

 of the brothers have died. Mrs. Stevens died in her eighty- 

 eighth year. 



REMINISCENCES OF JONAS STEVENS. 



A short sketch of the early settlement of the town of 

 Campbell, with something of a description of the manners 

 and customs of the first inhabitants, interspersed with some 

 items of experience by the author, may not be without 

 interest. 



" The town of Campbell is a part of the large town of 

 Painted Post, and derives its name from the numerous 

 family of Campbells living in it. The Campbells, I think, 

 emigrated from Stillwater, in this State, about the year 

 1803. Robert and Solomon, with their sons and daughters, 

 made quite a colony. Then the Stevens from Oneida Co., 

 N. Y., in 1804 and 1805, — almost as numerous as the 

 Campbells. These, with a few others, and here and there 

 a hut of Indians, composed the first inhabitants of this 

 town. They were scattered along the Conhocton Valley, 

 and here and there a little spot cleared and a log house 

 built, with a rough stone chimney and large fireplace, and 

 a crane or some other contrivance to hang the kettle over 

 the fire. With these arrangements the pioneers expected 

 to produce a support for their whole families by their own 

 labor. They raised flax and dressed it, and their wives 

 spun and wove it, to make their summer clothing, and for 

 winter the fleeces of their sheep went through the process 

 of picking and carding by hand, and mixed with black to 

 make a gray or colored with buttern-ut-bark to save expense ; 

 and as to buying anything out of the store, that was almost 

 out of the question. They made their own sugar. There 

 was one store, which was kept by William Bonham, at 

 Knoxville, between Bath and Big Flats, a log school-house, 

 and only two frame houses in town. Their cattle, sheep, 

 and hogs had the wide range of the big pasture and to go 

 as they would. At night they must go and hunt them up. 

 One of them would wear a bell, and it was not strange to 

 see a deer with them. I was informed of one man who, 

 while hunting his cows, shot and killed two large bears, and 

 next morning he took his oxen and cart and brought them 

 homa 



" Their sheep had to be driven up and yarded to keep 

 them from being torn and devoured by wolves. One night 

 I unavoidably failed to yard my father's sheep, and I went 

 out next morning and found them within about twenty 



rods of the house, with eight of their number killed, or 

 wounded so that they died. Wolves especially were very 

 plenty, and often committed depredations upon the farmer's 

 flocks, and in the fall of the year, late in the evening, their 

 bowlings could often be heard in the woods all around, 

 which was extremely frightful. It was rare that the most 

 skillful hunter could get a shot at one of these. But the 

 deer — the most beautiful- and harmless of wild animals — 

 were quite plenty, although pursued by wild beasts as well 

 as men. It was a very pleasing sight to see them start up 

 in the forest, sometimes as many as four or five together, 

 and hoist their white flag and bound off most gracefully 

 among the trees. I have seen as many as seven at one 

 time come in the depth of winter within fifteen rods of my 

 father's door, and stand by a stack of cornstalks and eat 

 as long as they would. 



" Almost every man kept a rifle with a flint lock, which 

 often disappointed him when he expected it to go off and 

 take down a deer. Their plows in those days were the 

 old-fashioned bull-plow, with wooden mould-board, and no 

 iron about them except the share. We knew nothing 

 about the mowing-machine, horse-rake, thrashing-machine, 

 grain-drill, steam-engine, railroad, telegraph, sewing-ma- 

 chine, or any of the numerous inventions now in use. We 

 were very profligate of our timber ; it was so plenty that 

 we would not have thought of charging a neighbor any- 

 thing for a dozen or twenty pine-trees. We felt secure 

 from burglars in our habitations without a lock to our 

 doors. 



" One incident in the war of 1812 I remember very dis- 

 tinctly. It used to be talked that there was danger of the 

 Indians coming over from Canada and going around killing 

 and scalping the inhabitants. Well, one day I was busy 

 with my play, my back towards the road, no one near me 

 that I knew of, when suddenly a hand came spat on the 

 top of my head, and fingers clenched into my hair and 

 gave it a shake. I turned my head while he yet held my 

 hair, and two large Indians with their hunting implements 

 stood behind me. I thought my scalp had got to come 

 off. They asked me in plain English if my father was at 

 home ; I answered that he was. When they saw how 

 they had surprised me they had a hearty laugh over it. 



" One of the Campbell boys and myself once built a fish- 

 rack, and one night, late in the fall, we caught fish enough 

 to fill a common-sized two-horse wagon box full. I will 

 also tell an authentic hunting story. An old hunter in this 

 neighborhood saw an animal which he took to be a large 

 wolf, feeding on the carcass of a deer, and shot and wounded 

 it slightly. He followed it the remainder of the day, and 

 the next day with another man, but saw nothing of the 

 animal. The next day another man went with a gun and 

 dogs. The dogs going ahead of the hunter soon came up 

 with the animal, and it turned and looked at the dogs, but 

 they kept out of its reach, while the man came up and saw 

 that it was a panther. The day following a brother and 

 cousin of mine went with him and followed it till almost 

 night, when the dogs started it in a thicket of large hem- 

 lock-trees. The dogs drove it into a tree. The men came 

 up, and after looking some time saw the panther in the top 

 of a large tree. Brother Ben shot him, and he barely kept 



