TOWN OF JASPER. 



343 



to work it over into rolls. Andrew Murphy, Sr., brother- 

 in-law of Mr. Craig, father of Andrew Murphy, of Jasper, 

 and John and Robert Murphy, oi' Canisteo, came soon after 

 and located a short distance north. 



Occasional settlements were made during the next de- 

 cade, including Andrew Moore, who came in 1816, and his 

 brother, John Moore, now one of the most prosperous and 

 respected farmers of the town, who is still living on the 

 place he selected south of Marlatt's Corners. When he 

 came there, a young man, with nothing but his vigorous 

 manhood to rely upon, his neighbors suggested placing him 

 under bonds that he should not become a public charge. 

 Many of those neighbors lived to see him achieve that suc- 

 cess which commands respect and adds to the reputation 

 of his surroundings. 



A few months after the arrival of Mr. Brotzman, Andrew 

 Simpson, father of Alexander, John, and Herman Simpson, 

 came from Scipio, Cayuga Co., and built his cabin where 

 the Drake Hotel now stands, in the village of Jasper. Mr. 

 Simpson's eldest daughter, Polly, was married to Samuel 

 Gregg, of Elmira, soon after, that being the first marriage 

 ceremony performed in the town. Two other sisters, Mi- 

 nerva and Jane, were subsequently married to Col. Jeffrey 

 and Ira Smith, pioneer settlers of WoodhuU. Ebenezer 

 Spencer came in 1808, and located a mile and a half north 

 of Mr. Simpson, applying himself so vigorously to the task 

 of clearing that in 1823 he had the largest improvement in 

 the town. 



In 1811, John G. Marlatt settled on the hill between 

 Mr. Simpson's and Nicholas Prutsman's, and afterwards the 

 place became known as Marlatt's Corners. His brothers, 

 Abram, Gideon, and Matthias, came afterwards, and with 

 their father, Gideon Marlatt, Sr., who died in August, 1823, 

 and two brothers-in-law, Uzal McMinds and Thomas Fen- 

 ton. John G. Marlatt occupied the same farm, from his 

 purchase in 1811 to his death in 1873, at the age of eighty- 

 seven years. 



Oliver Pease made the first settlement in 1816, where 

 WyckofF's tavern became a favorite resort, in the west part 

 of the town, near the deep, dark ravine known as the 

 " Gully." The old tavern has long since disappeared, and 

 near its place rises the tall spire of the Wesleyan church. 



In 1823, Robert Sharp, a soldier of 1812, moved on to 

 the farm where he still lives, at the ripe age of ninety-four 

 years. At the loggings and rail-splittings of fifty years ago, 

 he was known as *' the man who could out-chop any man 

 in the county." Mrs. Sharp, who is ninety-three years 

 old, is also living where, for nearly three-quarters of a cen- 

 tury, this aged couple have seen the progress, in rapid 

 strides, from the unbroken wilderness to the highest civiliza- 

 tion. 



The first settlement in the northwestern part of the town 

 was made by Guy Ward well, in 1822. William F. Gard- 

 ner, Henry Whiteman, and Richard Winship came in 1821, 

 and with him his brother Sylvester, father of Dr. D. C. 

 Winship, a prominent physician of Jasper, located in the 

 southern part of the town. Sylvester Winship, grandfather 

 of the doctor, accompanied his sons. 



Here, among the pines, were the favorite hunting-grounds 

 of a quiet race of Indians, who remained in small numbers 



some years after the white men had begun to clear the val- 

 leys. Stone hatchets, arrow-heads, and curiously- wrought 

 stones, whose use was unknown, were picked up in great 

 numbers by the early settlers. " Nicholas," an old Indian, 

 who used to frequent the Craig settlement long after the 

 rest were gone, playing for hours with the children, is said 

 to have brought lead and run it into bullets and fanciful 

 forms for their amusement. It was believed he obtained it 

 about the N. Prutsman farm, but he would only say, in an- 

 swer to questions, '^ Plenty; not far oiF!" 



The settlements were few, and far apart. The first school, 

 taught by Amanda Smith, was attended by children whose 

 long walk consumed nearly the entire day ; the barefooted, 

 tow-clad boys starting early that they might complete their 

 tasks and return before nightfall ; their homes were scat- 

 tered over a distance farther than the bounds of the present 

 town. 



Mills were scarce and distant at first, and the ingeniously 

 constructed " dandy rarer " cracked the corn and wheat of 

 the early settler, in a hollowed stump. A spring-pole made 

 fast at the roots of a neighboring tree, swung from a fork 

 set securely in the ground, from the end of which hung the 

 huge pestle, with a pin run through crosswise for handles. 

 The operator, pouring in his grain, stood upon the stump, 

 and grasping the pin with both hands, brought down the 

 pounder with the force of his weight. The unskilled oper- 

 ator, who caught the pin under his chin, or in his clothing, 

 as it recoiled from the blow, and was hurled from the stump 

 in astonishment, still remembers how it worked. 



School moneys were voted each year " to the full extent 

 of what the law allowed," and $250 a year voted for high- 

 ways and bridges from 1827 to 1839. In the year 1846 a 

 special town-meeting held for that purpose voted 108 to 113 

 against license to sell liquors. The war of 1861-65 called 

 for special town-meetings in rapid succession towards its 

 close. Feb. 26, 1864, a special call voted a tax of $300 for 

 each recruit, to fill quota, 159 votes being cast for tax, and 

 15 against. Aug. 6, 1864, a vote of 102 to 84 increased 

 the amount to $500 each. Aug. 26, 1864, a unanimous 

 vote of 64 added another hundred dollars. September 23, 

 the same year, the fifth special town-meeting, by a vote of 

 144 to 84, again declared in favor of a $600 bounty to re- 

 cruits for the army. 



The first settlement in that part of Jasper comprising 

 most of the northern part of the town, and known as the 

 " Hampshire Settlement," was made by Samuel Dennis, a 

 surveyor from New Hampshire, in the spring of 1824, 

 three miles northeast of the village, on the divide between 

 the Tuscarora and Col. Bill's Creek. Here he remained 

 alone for nearly two years, clearing four acres of land, raising 

 a crop of wheat, and building a house, with, to use his own 

 words, " the howling of the wolves for company." In 

 1826 he brought his family, and was soon followed by his 

 brother, Moses Dennis, several other families coming the 

 next season. 



Ephraim Woodward made a settlement in the town two 

 miles farther west than Mr. Dennis the same fall. He 

 was a man of great muscular power, and an almost con- 

 stant hunter, whose recklessness led him into many fierce 

 encounters. On one occasion he narrowly escaped death 



