TOWN OF CORNING. 



253 



while a resident of Northumberland, Pa., in 1792, formed 

 the acquaintance of Benjamin Patterson, the famous hunter 

 and guide, who was also a resident of that town. 



The colonel saw he was the very man to run his new 

 hotel, and at once induced him" to remove to the new coun- 

 try and open the house. In the fall of 1796, Patterson, 

 while here, killed a large amount of game, and had salted 

 down a large quantity of bear meat and dried deer hams, 

 to supply his hotel the coming season. In May, 1797, 

 Patterson and his brother Robert, with their families and 

 effects, embarked in boats and commenced the slow and 

 toilsome voyage up the Susquehanna, from Northumber- 

 land to Painted Post. The boats (sometimes called Dur- 

 ham boats) were long and narrow, and propelled against 

 the current by setting-poles, after the manner of the early 

 voyagers on our Western rivers. A stout man on each side 

 of the cabin, which rose slightly above the broad gunwale, 

 with a long pole braced against his shoulder, walked steadily 

 from stem to stern, while the steersman with his rudder 

 kept the craft in the right direction. When the current 

 was very rapid, the living freight went on shore, and with 

 a long rope attached to the bow, the boat was drawn up 

 the rapids by the crew. It has been told that the young- 

 sters of the family enjoyed the voyage hugely. 



Early in the beautiful month of June, Patterson tied his 

 tiny fleet to the bank just above the old Corning bridge and 

 quite convenient to his new home. He brought with him 

 his furniture and groceries, and was prepared at once to 

 open his house. 



On his arrival he found a number of families in the 

 valley, located as follows : David Fuller at the Conhocton 

 ford ; Stephen Ross on the farm in Centreville, known as 

 the old Philo Hubbell place; Eli Mead and his son Eldad 

 on the old Judge McBurney place, now owned by Fuller ; 

 George McCullough, on the next farm east. His house 

 was nearer the bank of the river, at the termination of the 

 McCullough lane ; Howell Bull lived near the site of the 

 Bonham House, and Fitch Wattles just across the road ; 

 Judge Knox came next. Across the road was Ben Eaton's 

 store. Mrs. Nehemiah Hubbell, then the widow of Ichabod 

 Patterson, occupied the next farm ; Senator Bradley's farm 

 was occupied by Jared Irwin, who planted the row of 

 buttonwoods which skirt the highway. The old Mallory 

 and McCuUough's lands, now the village of Corning, were 

 then owned and occupied by Jonathan and Jeduthan Row- 

 ley. Next below them resided Abraham and Dr. Phineas 

 Bradley and their brother-in-law, Eliakim Jones. Enos 

 Calkins lived just below them in a log house on the bank 

 of the river at the turn in the road. Frederick Calkins 

 lived near the site of the old red house, lately burned. 

 The Grotons, Wolcotts, and Rowleys lived still farther 

 east. Besides those named there were living in the vicinity 

 James Turner, William Knox, Hezekiah Thurber, Samuel 

 Shannon, David Hayden, Joseph Grant, Jonathan Cook, 

 and David Trowbridge. 



In 1804, Patterson left the tavern and removed upon 

 his farm two miles up the Tioga. Capt. Howell Bull was 

 his successor, and ran the house for a year or so. Col. 

 William H. Bull, of Bath, relates this incident as occurring 

 while his father occupied the place. One day. Gen. Ker- 



nan, of Tyrone, rode into the shed in the rear of the 

 house to hitch his horse, and discovered, not the Saviour, 

 but the enemy of mankind, a huge rattlesnake, coiled up 

 in the manger, taking his siesta. The general hurried into 

 the bar-room, and with affected anger saluted the captain 

 thus : " By St. Patrick, captain ! if you entertain such 

 customers as I find in your shed, I shall seek other quar- 

 ters." His snakeship was soon disposed of, and the general 

 appeased with a bumper of his favorite beverage. The 

 next landlord was Jonathan Rowley, who for long years 

 afterwards kept a hotel in Dansville. In 1813 the agent 

 of the Pulteney estate, finding it no longer necessary or 

 profitable to run a hotel, sold the property to John Jen- 

 nings, then of Newtown, who, a short time previous, had 

 emigrated from the famous Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. 

 He occupied and kept that old tavern until his death, a 

 period of over twenty years. 



John Jennings was a great wag and rare character. So 

 much esteemed was he that men and boys from far and 

 near called him " Uncle John" or " Uncle Johnny." He 

 was a stout, dumpy man of about five feet eight, with a 

 rosy, happy face — wrinkled like an old pippin— and double 

 chin, bright hazel eyes, flecked throughout with brown 

 specks, that twinkled with fun and beamed with good- 

 humor, aided much by the many crows'-feet about them. 

 He was portly withal and quite corpulent, making him no 

 mean type of the dispenser of mirth and good cheer for 

 others. In dress he was somewhat careless.* 



Knoxville was founded by and named after the Hon. 

 John Knox, who came to the place about 1795, from his 

 native State of Massachusetts. He led a distinguished and 

 active life, reflecting the highest honor upon the commu- 

 nity he established. His residence — in which he kept a 

 public-house — was located upon the second lot below the 

 Methodist church in Knoxville. It was in this house that 

 the original Painted Post Lodge of Free and Accepted 

 Masons occupied rooms, and where it flourished till 1827. 



Among the old landmarks of the town were the grists 

 and saw-mill erected by Ansel McCall, in 1805, upon the 

 site lately occupied by the Hammond & Johnson mills, on 

 the south side of the river, below the canal-dam. Mr. 

 McCall moved into the town in 1804, and occupied a log 

 house near his mills. He was the father of Ansel J. 

 McCall, Esq., one of the old lawyers of Bath, the late 

 Mrs. Betsey Calkins, the late Mrs. William S. Hubbell, 

 of Bath, the late Mrs. F. E. Erwin, and Mrs. T. Whiting, 

 of Iowa.*!* 



CENTREVILLE. 



Centreville formed part of the large farm of Judge 

 Thomas McBurney. In 1824 or '25 he laid out that por- 

 tion where Centreville is now situated into village lots, and 

 having set up a high post, and placing upon it the likeness 

 of an Indian and squaw painted on canvas, claimed it as 

 the site of the original Painted Post, and named the incip- 



-•• Article by A. J. McCall, Esq., in the Corning Journal. 



■j- On the Parks farm, now owned by Nelson Cowan, is still stand- 

 ing a barji built l^y Justus Wolcott, in 1796. The nails in it were 

 made at Bartle's Hollow, now Bradford, and brought on horseback, 

 in a pair of old-fashioned saddle-bags, by John Wolcott, a son of 

 Justus Wolcott. 



