TOWN OF LINDLEY. 



351 



house being filled with many mementos of early public 

 men, as well as of the early settlers of Steuben County. 



Dr. Ezekiel Mulford, the physician of the colony, was a 

 direct descendant of John Mulford, of Maidstone, Sussex, 

 England, who was one of the first thirty-five English set- 

 tlers in the State of New York, he settling on Long Island 

 in 1639. Dr. Mulford and his wife both died within a 

 few hours of each other during the fever of 1812, leaving 

 a family of fifteen children. Lindsley Mulford, who was 

 the oldest of the family, became known throughout the 

 country as a woodsman and hunter, living a life of adven- 

 ture with a young Indian for some years ; finally settling 

 down as a prosperous farmer, and dying at the age of 

 eighty-seven years. 



Jeremiah and Eleazer were intimately connected with 

 the early development of Lindleytown, which was built 

 upon their farms, and were highly respected by the com- 

 munity in which they lived. Eleazer Mulford, the last 

 survivor of the Lindsley colony, who came in 1809, died 

 in 1871, at the age of eighty-four years. In 1811 he was 

 married to Miss Betsey Lillibridge, who had come to the 

 settlement to teach school. John C and E. P. Mulford 

 are the leading members of the family in the town, and 

 prominent citizens. Lee and Uri Mulford, well-known 

 journalists and writers in Steuben County, are of this 

 family. Castilla was the father of Gen. John E. Mulford, 

 who acquired a national reputation by his connection with 

 the exchange of prisoners during the late war. Eliza, the 

 first child born in the colony, was the mother of Rodney 

 Bachus, the inventor. 



Joseph Miller, the school-teacher of the colony, grand- 

 father of Horace Yastbinder, informs us, in a school com- 

 missioner's report for 1826, that " the school-books used in 

 the four districts of the town are Webster's Spelling-book, 

 Murray's English Header, Murray's Grammar, Walker's 

 Dictionary, Daboll's Arithmetic, Flint's Surveying, and 

 Moar's Geography." 



Charles Seelye, who occupies the old homestead of his 

 grandfather, Capt. John Seelye, near the Lawrenceville 

 depot, is a son of Wm. Seelye, long a leading citizen of 

 Lindley, and the only one left to bear the name. 



Col. Gabriel T. Harrower, grandson of Rev. David Har- 

 rower, and for many years one of the leading lumbermen 

 of Tioga Yalley, served as colonel of the 161st New York 

 Volunteers in the late Rebellion, and represented this dis- 

 trict in the State Senate in 1871. 



Of the seven slaves brought by the colony from New 

 Jersey some of their descendants are still living in various 

 parts of the county. '^ Old Pomp" fell a victim to the 

 epidemic fever after tending the sick during the terrible 

 winter of 1813. 



Wm. More, one of the most extensive farmers in the 

 southern part of the county. Col. G. T. Harrower, Hiram 

 Middlebrook, S. M. Morgan, and Rev. W. H. Hill have 

 been leading business men of Lindleytown for many years. 



T. J. Presho and S. Hammond are leading business men 

 at Erwin Centre. 



Joseph Miller, one of the colony, who was in later years 

 for a long time school commissioner, taught the first school, 

 near the Pennsylvania line, in 1793, which shows that the 



first settlers of this wilderness did not remain long without 

 the means of education for their children. Dr. Mulford 

 located himself near the State line, and devoted himself to 

 his profession. Col. Lindsley sold to John P. Ryerss a por- 

 tion of the northeast corner of the town, and in 1804, Jas. 

 Ford came from the East as his clerk, bringing a stock of 

 goods and opening the first store in the valley, near the Orr 

 place, below Cook's Creek. Amos Halsey came after the 

 colony, and was accidentally killed in 1802. 



The first post-ofiice was at Judge Lindsley's house, and 

 afterwards, in 1830, at the store of Lyon & Morgan, Albert 

 Morgan being postmaster. Rev. David Harrower, a Scotch 

 Presbyterian preacher, resided in Lindley, and preached in 

 the surrounding country at that date. Joshua Russell 

 came to Lindley in 1823, settling on the Calder farm, at 

 the mouth of Mulford Creek. Lime was burned at this 

 point from marl, in the hills, in 1846. Coal has been found 

 also, on the surface among the hills on this creek, in small 

 quantities. This was one of the heaviest timbered towns in 

 the county, no less than fourteen miles having been located 

 along the river within the present town limits. Robert, a 

 brother of Ben Patterson the scout and hunter, who par- 

 ticipated in the engagement at Freeling's Fort and other 

 scenes of the early Indian wars, was one of the early set- 

 tlers, removing from the old tavern at Knoxville, and 

 locating at the mouth of the creek which bears his name, 

 in 1804. Among the later arrivals previous to 1830 are 

 found the names of E. F. Tremans, A. F. Lyon, A. C. and 

 Julius Morgan, John P. Ryerss, Abner Thurber, Frederick 

 Heckart, and Eber Scofield. Elam Watson has been jus- 

 tice of the peace almost continuously from 1830. 



The Lindsley colony brought with them several slaves, 

 who remained with their masters until years after the legis- 

 lation abolishing slavery in New York. Death emancipated 

 them from a not burdensome servitude. 



The line of road past the Patterson place was in earlier 

 days a well-known racing-ground, and the scene of many a 

 rural frolic among the hardy pioneers and their children. 

 The river, which is now confined to its narrow bed, covered 

 much of the flat with its shallow waters, and fords were 

 convenient at each settlement. Oak timber m the flats 

 furnished acorns to fatten the half-wild hogs, and butter- 

 nuts covered the ground in their season. Every family had 

 its dug-out, and deer were shot at will in the woods or while 

 feeding on the rich mosses in the dark shadows of the river. 

 Col. Lindsley portioned his lands to his children and fol- 

 lowers in long strips across the town, the old partition sur- 

 veys still annoying their possessors by their inconvenient 

 angles. The now rich river-flats were in many cases aban- 

 doned by their owners for hill farms, which, when devel- 

 oped, were vastly inferior in value to those they left. 



From the opening of the railroad with its wooden track 

 and thin strap rails from Corning up the valley to the 

 Blossbursr coal-mines in 1840, the real settlement of the 

 town outside of the valley may be said to have begun, and 

 as the timber was taken off men began to realize the possi- 

 bility of clearing away the smaller growth and making 

 themselves homes. Their houses were built with an eye 

 to comfort and hospitality, having large doors, through 

 which, in winter, the heavy logs were drawn by teams 



