F K E M O N" T, 



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GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



The town of Fremont was formed from Hornellsville, 

 Dansville, Wayland, and Howard, Nov. 17, 1854. The 

 south end of Wayland, in township 5, was subsequently 

 added, but a compromise was effected returning a part, 

 leaving an addition one by two miles in extent. It is 

 situated in the northern part of the county, near the east 

 line, and is bounded by Dansville and Wayland on the north, 

 Cohocton and Howard on the east, Howard and Hornells- 

 ville on the south, and Hornellsville and Wayland on the 

 west. It is an elevation of broken land, cut into small 

 ' bodies by numerous knobs and ravines. It forms the divid- 

 ing ridge betw^een the Conhocton and Canisteo Rivers, and 

 comprises, for the most part, fine grazing lands. The ridges 

 and valleys alternate between hard pan and gravelly soil, fine 

 wheat and fiirming land occurring in all parts of the town. 



erection of the town. 

 Elisha J. Stephens, the first supervisor, was the principal 

 mover in the erection of the town of Fremont. An at- 

 tempt was being made to erect a new county, and to avoid 

 the possibility of a more distant county-seat, Mr. Stephens 

 mapped out a new town, which he gave the name Fremont, 

 and procured its erection at the next session of the Board 

 of Supervisors, thereby creating one additional vote in that 

 board against the new county. 



settlement. 



Mr. Stephens, a son of Capt. Nathaniel Stephens, of 

 Canisteo, moved from that town in 1834, and entered the 

 wilderness to operate the saw- and grist-mills of Daniel Up- 

 son, the first mills built in the town. The saw-mill was 

 built in 1816, and the grist-mill in 1819. At the time of 

 his purchase there was only a little log cabin down in the 

 ravine by the mill, and another occupied by David Dun- 

 ham, a preacher, who still lives there, near the present 

 tavern. There was a small clearing, made by " Jerry" 

 Carrington, in 1818, and all else was woods. Mr. Ste- 

 phens repaired the mill, and added a separator and smut- 

 mill, a new thing in those days, inducing customers to come 

 from a long distance, and even past other mills. A black- 

 smith was induced to locate at the mill, and a cooper came 

 and made barrels for the flour. One hundred acres of land 

 were cleared the first season. In 1839 a daughter of Mr. 

 Stephens dying, was buried on the extreme corner of the 

 clearing, and afterwards the cemetery was located at that 

 point. The first store in the village was opened by Cor- 

 nelius 11. Stephens, in 1858, five years after the post-ofiice 

 was established. The Stephens Hotel was opened in 1854. 

 The village is named Fremont Centre, but the post-office is 

 Stephens' Mills. It is located upon a high bench of land 

 298 



overlooking Stephens Creek, and extends for half a mile 

 along the base of a knob which rises abruptly to a height 

 of ninety feet above the level of its street. From the top 

 of this hill may be seen level farm-lands in the distance, 

 and fringes of low timber filling the ravines, which are too 

 deep and dark to be worth clearing. To the east, as you 

 look from the hill-top over the little village, is the residence 

 of Alvin Gates, son of Salmon Gates, who made the first 

 settlement in 1816, half a mile to the north, where you see 

 the old homestead. This, one of the finest farms in the 

 town, is occupied by another son, Syphorus Gates. Levi, 

 brother of Salmon Gates, settled just out of sight — to the 

 west, and his son, G. W. Gates, lives in the fine house at 

 the west end of the village. Just below the village, in the 

 valley, where the grist-mill stands, were the old Upson mills, 

 to which hard-working men came years ago with bags of 

 corn on their backs. Close under the hill to the east, half 

 hidden by a grove of hemlock, is the Advent church and 

 cemetery. A few straggling houses continue to the valley 

 beyond. 



Far beyond this church, where the eye rests on a broad, 

 level hill-top, at the west line of the town, was made the first* 

 settlement in the present town of Fremont, by Job B. 

 Rathbun, father of William B. Rathbun, the present oc- 

 cupant, and last of the family bearing the name in this 

 State. Job B. Rathbun came from Connecticut and settled 

 in Dansville, where he was pathmaster as early as 1810. 

 Moving on to the hill in the spring of 1812, he built the 

 first house ifi the town, just behind the present residence. 



Half-way between Stephens' mill and the point of first 

 settlement, known as Job's Corners, is an open basin a mile 

 across, the lands gradually sloping until they join in the valley, 

 and extending in cleared farms to the hill-tops on either side. 

 In this valley, just beyond the old orchard on the right as you 

 ascend the stream to the west, is the residence of the first 

 neighbor of Job B. Rathbun, Abel H. Baldwin, who came 

 from Otsego County in 1812, and is now the oldest man in 

 the town, as well as the oldest settler. Mr. Baldwin was 

 born in March, 1878, and has lived with his wife, who is 

 still living, sixty-six years. Thomas, father of Sylvester and 

 John A. Buck, settled just beyond the orchard, and built 

 his log cabin on the top of the hill. They were natives of 

 Washington County. The only other settler within six 

 miles at that time was Job Rathbun, two miles east, over the 

 ridge, and the road consisted mainly of white spots blazed 

 upon the trees with an axe. They used first to carry their 

 grists to Bath to be ground. John A. Buck married Re- 

 becca, the daughter of his neighbor Baldwin, Aug. 24, 

 1815, and settled on the ridge near by. They were the 

 first couple married in the town of Fremont. Their son, 

 Charles E. Buck, born Nov. 12, 1816, was the first white 



