TOWN OF HORNELLSVILLE. 



319 



family he then had, few, if any, are left in this part of the 

 land. 



Abraham Minier and his brother Henry occupied the 

 farm now owned by a son of the late Captain William Ben- 

 nett. It was then known as the Dr. Hale farm, afterwards 

 as the Pompelly, and still later as the Meade farm. Uriah 

 Upson lived on the opposite side of the river from this 

 farm, a little farther up, and nearly on the site of the 

 present Canisteo depot. He had a large family, many of 

 whom still remain. Next came William Mulhollen, famil- 

 iarly called " Uncle Billy." He kept a tavern in a hewed 

 log house, and owned a most beautiful farm, sweeping from 

 hill-top to hill-top across the broad valley, and all yet owned 

 by Samuel and William, the surviving sons, who have 

 greatly improved and beautified the ancestral homestead. 



Then came Col. James McBurney, a bachelor, at that 

 time of some forty or forty-five years, and owning some 

 1600 acres of land. He had, for that time, a fine house, 

 well finished and painted, the grounds neatly fenced and 

 shrubbery in the yard. He had also a fine orchard in full 

 bearing. This splendid property was bought of Solomon 

 Bennett, father of the late Maj. Thomas and W^illiam 

 Bennett. It is now, in great part, owned by Mr. T. J. 

 Magee. Col. McBurney married a Mrs. Erwin, of Dans- 

 ville, Livingston Co., with whom he lived many years, but 

 left no child to bear his name or inherit his estate. He 

 was a man of sterling integrity, strong mind, and kindly 

 disposition. As a Democrat he was decided in his political 

 principles, and was honored by his townsmen with every 

 responsible office in their gift. In later life he became a 

 member of the First Presbyterian Church of Hornellsville 

 at the time of its organization, and an active and liberal 

 helper in the erection of the first church edifice. 



The next occupied farm on the way we have thus far 

 traveled was owned by old Mr. Richard Crosby, who was 

 as early a settler as any in the valley. He, in company 

 with Solomon Bennett, Capt. John Jameson, and Uriah 

 Stephens, explored this region in 1788, and became a settler 

 on this farm in 1790. It is the same farm now owned by 

 Alanson Stephens and Philip Van Scoter. Mr. Crosby 

 was an old man in 1810, and soon passed away. He had 

 two sons, Beuben and Richard, and three daughters, Han- 

 nah, Rachel, and Polly. Reuben lived a little north of 

 Mr. Hough's on the bank of the creek. It was then all 

 woods between there and where Main Street, in the village 

 of Hornellsville, now is. Richard lived on the river a few 

 miles below Col. Bill's mill, and owned a good farm there. 

 He had several sons, the most of whom have passed away, 

 but some remain, and a new and enterprising generation of 

 that name have taken the place of their ancestors. None 

 of the daughters of old Mr. Crosby are living at this writ- 

 ing. Hannah, known as Aunt Niel, was the last to depart, 

 some years since. Rachel married Daniel Upson, and 

 reared a large and respectable family. Many of the 

 grandchildren remain here, but the majority of them have 

 removed West. Polly married Elias Stephens, who lived 

 in a hewed log house near the railroad crossing below the 

 Hornellsville depot. They had two sons and five daughters, 

 two of whom, Erastus Stephens and Mrs. Holmes, were, 

 until their recent decease, residents of Hornellsville. 



Deacon Thacher, speaking of Mrs. Niel, says : " This 

 most estimable lady lived with her father and mother, when 

 I first knew her, but she owned a house and 50 acres of 

 land, the gift of her father. The house stood a few rods 

 east of Canisteo Street, and nearly opposite the Franklin 

 House. It was thickly wooded between the house and road, 

 though a little improved, and a small orchard stood farther 

 back. Here she lived, as I have been told, for many 

 months entirely alone, with no neighbors nearer than the 

 settlement at ' Lower Canisteo,' a distance of six or seven 

 miles. She was a model pioneer heroine. In the midst of 

 a dense forest, the hoot of the owl, the howl of the wolf, 

 and the panther's cry were familiar sounds by night, and 

 the timid deer almost a constant visitor by day. Here she 

 held this frontier outpost for months entirely alone. Her 

 husband and her brother Reuben's wife were buried on the 

 same day, the first occurrence of the kind (the interment 

 of two persons on the same day) in this entire region. She 

 lived to be nearly one hundred years old, and died, as she 

 had lived, with the respect and esteem of all who knew her. 

 She was a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church of Hornellsville." 



Oliver Harding was the nearest neighbor of Reuben 

 Crosby, and lived on what is now Main Street, a few rods 

 back from the " turnpike," as it was then called. He was 

 an old man in 1810, a veteran of 1776 ; he had often seen, 

 and, if we mistake not, fought under the immediate com- 

 mand of General Washington. The old hero would always 

 be affected to tears when looking at the likeness of his be- 

 loved commander, and the slightest disrespect towards him 

 would rouse the deepest indignation of the old soldier. He 

 had six sons and two daughters. The daughters have long 

 been dead, and all the sons save one are now gone. James, 

 the eldest but one, died some fifteen years ago. He .was 

 about eighty years of age, the father of Morrison Harding 

 and Mrs. Erastus Grover. Adam Lewis was a half-brother 

 of Mr. James Harding, and the father of Mrs. Matthew 

 Stephens. " Harding Hill" received its name from Oliver 

 Harding. 



Judge Hornell, after whom the town was named, came 

 next. He lived in what for a long time was known as the 

 '' Red House." It stood a little back from the road, and 

 on the site of the house now owned by Mrs. Dr. Gray, on 

 Washington Street. It was a large building for those days, 

 and was kept as a public-house for a long series of years. 

 The judge was one of the earliest of the pioneers, and bore 

 his full share of pioneer hardships, which were neither few 

 nor small. He purchased two or three thousand acres of 

 land, and soon erected a grist- and saw-mill, which were a 

 great relief to the infant settlement, as their nearest grist- 

 mill was at Elmira (then Newtown), sixty miles by the 

 present road, but nearer one hundred by the roads they 

 were then obliged to take. The few neighbors here-and at 

 " Lower Canisteo" used to join and fit out a fleet of canoes, 

 load them with grain for all the families, and then a suffi- 

 cient number of the hardy woodsmen, with their setting- 

 poles, navigated the fleet through all the windings and 

 turnings, through the collections of driftwood, and over the 

 shoals ; when wet and wearied, as the day closed, they were 

 obliged to find a shelter wherever night overtook them. By 



