L I N" D L E Y. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



The town of Lindley was formed from Erwin, May 12, 

 1837. It lies upon the southern border of the county, east 

 of the centre, and is bounded by Erwin on the north, Ca- 

 ton on the east, the Pennsylvania line on the south, and 

 Tuscarora on the west. The east and west parts of Lindley 

 are elevated and hilly uplands, divided by the deep valley 

 of the Tioga River, which is about one mile wide, and 

 bounded by steep hill-sides from 400 to 600 feet high. The 

 soil on the hills is a heavy, shaly loam, and in the valleys 

 a rich alluvium. A large portion of the surface of the hills 

 is still covered with forests, from which lumbering has been 

 extensively carried on. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



The first settlement of this town was made upon the 

 Tioga Flats, by Colonel Eleazer Lindsley, in the year 1790. 

 Mr. Lindsley was a native of New Jersey, and had been an 

 active ofiicer of the '' Jersey Blues" during the Revolu- 

 tionary war. Previous to 1790 he had ridden through the 

 Genesee country to find a tract of land where he might es- 

 tablish himself and gather his children around him. The 

 unhealthiness of the region around Seneca and Canandaigua 

 Lakes prevented his settling in that region, and he chose a 

 tract less promising for agricultural purposes, but one that 

 promised freedom from the diseases to which the more fer- 

 tile northern plains were subject. 



His colony consisted of about forty persons, who, with 

 their goods, were transported to the Susquehanna. At 

 Wilkesbarre these were transferred to boats and poled up 

 the river, while the horses and cattle were driven along the 

 trails or rude roads upon the banks. They arrived at their 

 place of destination June 7, 1790. Plows were made, and 

 the river-flats were immediately broken. These flats were 

 covered with rank grass, bordered by higher land covered 

 with Indian corn-hills, which had been hilled up year after 

 year, until so prominent as to be yet seen where undisturbed. 

 It was on these corn-lands the first crop of the pioneers was 

 raised. The season was too far advanced for corn, but a 

 great harvest of buckwheat was secured. Buckwheat, corn, 

 milk, and game constituted their food the first winter. " Old 

 Pomp," a negro belonging to Col. Lindsley, made himself 

 useful by pounding buckwheat in the dug-out top of a 

 stump, with pestle hung like an old-fashioned well-sweep, 

 from the time the ice closed the river in autumn until 

 spring removed the impediment, and allowed the trans- 

 portation of grain in canoes to Shepard's mill at Tioga 

 Point, fifty-two miles down the river. Old Pomp seems to 

 have been something of a hunter as well as a miller, killing 

 three bucks at one shot as they were feeding upon the moss 

 in the river, and being kicked over a log and into the 

 350 



brush and nearly killed himself, from the recoil of the gun, 

 which he always loaded with a handful of powder, and the 

 entire contents of the old-fashioned brass moulds, — an ounce 

 ball and nineteen buckshot of various sizes. 



Colonel and Mrs. Lindsley were members of the Presby- 

 terian Church at Morristown, N. J., and in this new settle- 

 ment the Sabbath was strictly observed. Traveling mis- 

 sionaries were cordially welcomed, and when none of these 

 were present to conduct the religious services. Col. Linds- 

 ley himself would read a sermon. In 1793 he was elected 

 a member of the Legislature. He died at home soon after, 

 and his remains were the first to be placed in the plat he 

 had himself selected for the cemetery of the colony, his 

 death taking place in June, 1794. This cemetery is situ- 

 ated on the left bank of the river, and contains the remains 

 of many of the early pioneers. It is known as the Linds- 

 ley Burying-ground. His was the first death in the new 

 colony, which lost in him an energetic and worthy founder. 

 Col. Lindsley was accompanied to his new home in the 

 Tioga Valley by his two sons, Samuel and Eleazer, and by 

 his sons-in-law. Dr. Ezekiel Mulford, Ebenezer Bachus, 

 and Capt. John Seelye. David Cook and David Payne, 

 who, in company with Mr. Bachus, built the first mill at 

 Lindley Station, also accompanied the colony. Eliza Mul- 

 ford, daughter of Dr. Ezekiel Mulford, was the first child 

 born in Lindley, and first white female child born in the 

 county of Steuben, her birth occurring Aug. 10, 1792. 

 David Cook and Elizabeth Cady were the first couple 

 united in marriage. Col. Lindsley, before his death, had 

 erected a saw-mill, the irons for which he had brought with 

 him from New Jersey, and which was in operation in 1790, 

 being one of the first mills on the Phelps and Gorham pur- 

 chase, and the first in the Tioga Valley. This mill was 

 located at a fall, a short distance up Watson Creek. The 

 first grist-mill was built soon after, between this and the 

 river. Mrs. Lindsley, after the death of her husband, kept 

 the first public-house between Williamsport and Bath, and 

 entertained Col. Williamson and his crew on their early 

 journey through the wilderness. She died in Lindleytown, 

 Nov. 20, 1806. 



Many of the descendants of the Lindsley, Mulford, and 

 Seelye families still live in the Tioga and adjoining valleys. 

 The principal descendant of the Lindsley family is Bradley 

 Lindsley, who occupies the original home of his grand- 

 father, much improved and beautified, but still exhibiting 

 the old style of liberal hospitality and welcome. Charles 

 Ford, only son of the first merchant in the valley, and 

 grandson of Col. Lindsley, married the daughter of Gen. 

 Cruger, of Bath, and still lives in sight of the little ceme- 

 tery where sleep the colonists and many of their children. 

 A visit to his home is a rare treat to the antiquarian, the 



