324 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



1838. 



John Pitts.^- 



1858. 



Richard C. Major. 



1839. 



John Pitts. 



1859. 



Homer Holliday. 





David Crandall.-- 



1860. 



John Hurlbut. 



1840. 



David Crandall. 



1861. 



Hiram Bennett. 



1841. 



Charles LefFcrts. 



1862. 



William W. Osgoodby 



1842. 



Elisha G. Stephens. 



1863. 



Homer Holliday. 





Israel Adams.* 



1864. 



James McWoolever. 



1843. 



Sidney Frisbie. 



1865. 



Hiram Bennett. 



1844. 



John Pitts. 





F. Colegrove.* 





Nathaniel Finch.-^ 



1866. 



S. M. Thacher. 



1845. 



Hiram Bennett. 





S. D. Pitts.* 



1846. 



Benjamin T. Hoyes. 



1867. 



Stephen F. Gilbert. 



1847. 



Ethan Coats. 



1868. 



HoQier Holliday. 





Andrew Morris.* 



1869. 



Rodney Dennis. 



1848. 



John Hurlbut. 





Henry Howard.* 





Nathaniel Finch.* 



1870. 



Charles E. Beard. 



1849. 



Nathaniel Finch. 



1871. 



H. F. Howard. 



1850. 



Hiram Bennett. 



1872. 



Martin V. Doty. 



1851. 



Andrew Morris. 



1873. 



Homer Holliday. 



1852. 



William E. Haight. 



1874. 



C. E. Beard. 



1853. 



James Atley. 



1875. 



H. F. Howard. 



1854. 



Hiram Bennett. 



1876. 



Orson Mosher. 



1855. 



Homer Holliday. 



1877. 



Edwin J. Cox. 



1856. 



John Hurlbut. 



1878. 



Henry L. Walker. 



1857. 



John M. Wisewell. 







VILLAGE or HOENELLSVILLE. 



The village of Hornellsville is situated in the upper Can- 

 isteo Valley, and at the intersection of the Buffalo division 

 with the main line of the Erie Railway. Its railroad 

 facilities and advantages for manufacturing and commercial 

 interests are second to no other place in the county. Hor- 

 nellsville is distant from New York three hundred and 

 thirty-five miles, from Dunkirk one hundred and twenty- 

 eight miles, from Buffalo ninety-one miles, and from 

 Corning forty-one miles. The population of the village 

 has rapidly increased during the past decade, and is at 

 present estimated at between 7000 and 8000. 



The history of the growth of this village from a rural 

 hamlet presents a long period of prosperity and general 

 improvement. But the period of its rapid growth began 

 with the construction of the New York and Erie Railway. 

 In 1832 the Legislature passed an act chartering this com- 

 pany to build a railroad from some point on the Hudson 

 River, through the southern tier of counties by way of 

 Owego, to some point on Lake Erie. The route through 

 this county was left undetermined. There was no clause 

 in the bill compelling the company to construct the road by 

 the way of Hornellsville, and the only sure thing was that 

 it would go through the county somewhere, and perhaps up 

 the valley of the Canisteo. Great anxiety prevailed, and 

 when, at last, through the exertions of influential citizens, 

 prominent among whom may be mentioned Hugh Magee, 

 the late Judge Hawley, James McBurney, Charles N. Hart, 

 Martin Adsit and others, the engineer decided to locate 

 the road through this village, the joy of its citizens was 

 unbounded. 



In 1841 the pile-driver, a steam-machine combining pile- 

 driver, locomotive, and saw-mill, made its appearance upon 

 the route. It moved upon wheels, driving two piles at a 

 time, and sawing them off at a level as it passed along. In 

 this section it commenced operations at the lower edge of a 

 pine woods, which stood back of the present depot, and 



* To fill vacancy. 



moved eastward, constructing the original but long since 

 obsolete road-bed of the great Erie Railway. The traveler 

 through the valley sees at this day the relics of this early 

 work, and perhaps wonders for what purpose and at what 

 period so many piles were driven into the ground. 



The company running out of funds, the construction of 

 the road was for some time suspended, which was not only 

 a serious blow to the hopes of Hornellsville, but for some 

 time a great detriment to her business interests. The pros- 

 pect of the road being speedily finished had stimulated un- 

 wonted activity ; speculation had run high ; real estate had 

 risen rapidly ; people had begun to look for " good loca- 

 tions" and "corner lots;" and land which had remained in 

 one ownership since the early settlement had suddenly 

 begun to change hands, and to be "staked out" or fenced 

 into lots. All this was brought to a sudden stand, and, it 

 was feared by many, to a hopeless reversion, by the suspen- 

 sion of the building of the road. The work, however, was 

 again resumed, and the road built through from Piermont, 

 on the Hudson, to Dunkirk, N. Y. On Sunday, the first 

 day of September, 1850, the first locomotive came up the 

 valley, and stopped at this village. We need not speak of 

 the rejoicing of the citizens, nor of their gratitude to the 

 railway company, to whom more than to all other advan- 

 tages the village owes its rapid growth and its present and 

 prospective prosperity. The entrance of the road gave the 

 place that impulse which it has ever since held, changing 

 it from a small inland village to a prominent position 

 among the thriving and posperous business centres of the 

 State. 



The progress of the place rapidly followed. On the 19th 

 of November, 1851, Edwin Hough published the first 

 number of the Hornellsville Tribune, the first newspaper 

 published in the town. The village was incorporated June 

 28, 1852. The branch road to Buffalo was opened the 

 same summer. 



This and the following year were marked by a whirl and 

 excitement, and fortunes were made in corner lots. Large 

 and expensive buildings were erected, and the population 

 increased so rapidly that buildings could not be erected fast 

 enough to accommodate the new-comers. The Tribune of 

 that date states that there was not a single house to let in 

 the village. 



The first locomotive in Hornellsville was the "Orange, No. 

 4," built by the Norris Locomotive- Works at Philadelphia. 

 She was also the first that ran to Attica, and in fact the 

 pioneer of the entire road. Engine No. 90 was the next, 

 and the first to sound the steam-whistle between Buffalo 

 and Cleveland. She was taken from Boston to Piermont 

 by N. Gr. Brooks and C. W. Tafts, on a schooner, then put 

 on a scow and towed to Buffalo by the way of the Erie 

 Canal,* then located on a ship and taken to Dunkirk, and 

 ran the first train at that end of the road. 



In February, 1851, C. W. Tafts was ordered to Hornells- 

 ville from Dunkirk, to run engine No. 73, between Hor- 

 nellsville and Andover as a construction-train. He came 

 by stage, which took four da3^s (instead of four hours, as at 

 present). Jamestown, EUicottville, Little Yalley, and An- 

 gelica were stopping-places. Fare and hotel charges, $10, 

 At that time Hornellsville contained about one hundred 



