220 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



heart smitten to the dust under his crushing sorrow, said 

 to the audience, ' Stop, friends, a moment ; I want to pray 

 before you remove the body.' The dear old man fell upon 

 his knees, and the first words of his prayer were, ' Oh, 

 God ! assuage my grief.' Few eyes were dry when he had 

 finished. All hearts sympathized with the aged saint. 

 But he had gained the victory. He arose apparently calm 

 and submissive."* 



The Indians abandoned their hunting-grounds immedi- 

 ately, and very few of them were ever seen in this quarter 

 afterwards. 



A short distance above Mr. Stephens lived William S. 

 Thomas, who accumulated a fair competence and lived to 

 an old age. He left but one child. 



Soon after the road was opened from Mr. Thomas' to 

 the Salt Spring (1820), John H. Stephens, son of Col. 

 John, made a beginning in the midst of this nine or ten 

 mile wilderness, with not a neighbor within five miles of 

 him, Mr. Thomas being the nearest. Christian Coby about 

 this time settled on the creek, and Phineas Stephens, bro- 

 ther of John H., began an improvement the same or the 

 following year. Batchelder and Woodard made settlements 

 a few years later, and later still. Manning and Ordway. A 

 large proportion of the valley of the creek was covered with 

 a dense forest of white pine. Mills were soon put up all 

 along the creek, which abounded with excellent water-power, 

 and soon a large and profitable business was done in the 

 manufacture of lumber. The timber being now exhausted, 

 fine farms are opened up the whole length of the creek. 



John H. Stephens had quite a large family. Two of his 

 sons, Jerome and Van Buren, are resident and active busi- 

 ness men of Hartsville. One of the daughters is Mrs. Cos- 

 ten, of Hornellsville ; and another, Mrs. King, of the same 

 village. Two are in Andover, two in Greenwood, one in 

 Hartsville, and one in Portage, Allegany Co. Mr. Stephens 

 himself quit the scenes of his arduous toil many years ago, 

 and is spending the evening of his life in Hornellsville. 



Phineas Stephens was located a little farther down the 

 creek, and opened the farm afterwards known as the Stephens 

 farm. He did not live long to enjoy the fruits of his toil, 

 but died in the meridian of manhood, regarded by all who 

 knew him as a good neighbor and a valuable citizen. His wife 

 was a daughter of Rev. Jedediah Stephens (the late Mrs. 

 Jeremiah Baker). Phineas had four children, — two sons, 

 Edwin and Harvey, and two daughters, Melissa and Rachel. 

 The former married Mr. Hector C Baker, and the latter, 

 Hon. John Santee, one of the most successful business men 

 and influential citizens of Hornellsville. Daniel McHenry 

 Stephens, another of the sons of Col. John Stephens, settled 

 and still resides on Slate Creek. Daniel had four sons and 

 two daughters. One of the sons, and both daughters, are 

 in Michigan ; the other three sons are still engaged in agri- 

 culture near the old home. 



Col. John Stephens, of whose children and grandchildren 

 we have just spoken, moved upon the creek in 1822, and 

 built the mills known as the Stephens Mills. The country 



-In 1830^ Curly Eye was visited on the Genesee by Hon. Jeremiah 

 Baker, and he informed the Latter that Sundown's intention was to 

 have shot Ezra Stephens instead of Joshua, and that he was opposed 

 to the murder and advised Sundown not to shoot. 



was still new and the settlers few and far between. The 

 mills in their first construction were adapted to the then 

 present wants of the country rather than to prospective 

 requirements of an increasing population. In 1830 the 

 property passed into the hands of his son, Hon. Alexander 

 H. Stephens. His wife was the daughter of Levi Davis, 

 who settled in that part of the county in 1825, and became 

 the owner of the Salt Springs property. Alexander H. 

 Stephens had one son, Redmond D. Stephens, who was by 

 profession a lawyer, and a young man of fine education and 

 much promise. Soon after completing his education, with 

 the enterprising spirit of the old stock, he went West in 

 search of a field adapted to his energies and ambition. He 

 found it in Marion, la., where, mainly by his own energy 

 of character, he has made himself an enviable standing 

 and accumulated a fortune. One of the daughters is now 

 Mrs. Crandall, also a resident of Marion, la. ; another mar- 

 ried a Joseph Woodbury, proprietor of the Stephens Mills 

 in Grreenwood ; and one daughter we believe still resides at 

 the old home. 



Col. John Stephens, the old patriarch of the families, 

 had two other children, to whom brief allusion has been 

 made, — Elias Stephens, Esq., of Canisteo, and Mrs. Dr. 

 Olin. The former has two sons and four daughters, all of 

 whom, except one son, reside in Canisteo. Mrs. Dr. Olin 

 had two sons and one daughter. Both of the sons, Mar- 

 cellus and Marshall, reside in Hornellsville. Vernetta, the 

 daughter, married Jedediah Baker, son of Hon. Jeremiah 

 Baker, of Canisteo, and resides in Iowa. 



William Jameson, son of John Jameson, one of the 

 original pioneers, is now living on the old farm where his 

 father settled. He has one son, William Jameson, Jr., 

 residing on the homestead, and one daughter, Mrs. Ira 

 Day, of South Dansville. 



Of the large Hallett family, among whom were Dr. Samuel 

 Hallett, Nathan and Thomas Hallett, only one is now liv- 

 ing, viz., James E. Hallett, who resides at Adrian, in this 

 county. 



Col. John Stephens was one of the original pioneers, or 

 famous ten^ who were enumerated as heads of families ita 

 numbers three and four in the fifth and sixth ranges of 

 towns in 1790. The other nine were James Headley, Wil- 

 liam Baker, Jedediah Stephens, Uriah Stephens, Uriah 

 Stephens, Jr., Richard Crosby, Solomon Bennett, Andrew 

 Bennett, and John Jameson. This included all the heads 

 of families in the Canisteo Valley, from Addison to Ark- 

 port, at that date. 



Levi Davis was also among the early settlers on Bennett's 

 Creek ; he moved in in 1825. He was a man of active 

 business habits, and early, in addition to his agricultural 

 operations, introduced merchandise on a small scale. It 

 gradually enlarged under his skillful management and that 

 of his sons, until it assumed for many years the proportions 

 and dignity of a large and remunerative business. 



The Hon. Redmond Davis, one of the sons of Levi 

 Davis, and merchant at Greenwood, has represented the 

 Third Assembly District of Steuben County in the State 

 Legislature, where he did honor to himself and his con- 

 stituency as an efficient and faithful member. 



" In 1820," says one of our oldest citizens, " I passed 



