356 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



of the journey, reaching finally, after many tribulations, the 

 cabin on Hemlock Hill. When within two miles of the 

 end of their journey, they were obliged to sojourn for two 

 days at one Deacon Bennett's till a road could be cut 

 through ; the only open road which they had formerly 

 traveled being up the hill from Pleasant Valley on a difi'er- 

 ent route. The family lived on the hill some three years, 

 during which time there was friendly intercourse with the 

 Chapin and Jared Pratt families, by a road opened through 

 the dense forest. Mrs. Rice traveled the same, in one in- 

 stance, alone, though wild beasts were numerous. The 

 family removed to this place in 1805, into a house built of 

 hewed logs, on the knoll occupied now by William B. Pratt. 

 The barn had also been built, the trees being cut away to 

 make room for it, and some of the stumps remain there- 

 under till this day. 



" In the summer of 1804, Mrs. Rice kept house for her 

 father for awhile, in a log cabin a few rods west from where 

 L. O. Dunning resides, while he cleared sixty acres of 

 forest, a part of the present premises of A. H. Van Housen. 

 It was heavy maple timber, and the labor was largely done 

 by three men from Sherburne, they using long pikes, and 

 throwing the trees into immense windrows. When the fo- 

 liage was dry the surrounding forest was lighted with such 

 a prodigious fire as is rarely seen, reducing not only leaves 

 and limbs, but trunks also, to a large extent, to ashes. 

 Where the village now stands was cleared subsequently by 

 parties from Middletown, now Naples, under the superin- 

 tendence of Uriel Chapin and William Root, of Albany, 

 the latter being interested by purchase of lands. Seventy 

 acres were cleared at one time, and sowed with wheat, mak- 

 ing a luxuriant growth in the fall, which afibrded fine 

 grazing for deer, then so abundant that Joel Pratt was able, 

 with his old flint-lock musket, to capture three in a single 

 day. 



" The road to Middletown was opened prior to 1802, — a 

 two-rod road which extended to Bath by way of the Hemlock 

 Hill, Uriel Chapin being the contractor. At the two ex- 

 tremes — Naples and Bath — were the only grist-mills in all 

 this region. At this time (1805), settlers were coming in 

 considerable numbers. Minister Niles being the first after 

 Jared Pratt, unless we except Daniel Buel, a bachelor and 

 expert hunter, who located his cabin on grounds now owned 

 by W. H. Babcock, and profitably followed his chosen pur- 

 suit. Buel subsequently wandered off" to Northern Ohio, 

 and met his death at the hands of some of the very abor- 

 iginal race with whom he had so long fellowshiped. While 

 making a fire in his cabin a treacherous savage stealthily 

 entered his door, and fatally buried his tomahawk in his 

 back. This was the last of Buel, who was well esteemed 

 by the early settlers for his simple habits, unobtrusive in- 

 dustry, and unflinching integrity. His hold on his mother's 

 afi'ections was so strong as to bring her on one occasion all 

 the way from Stockbridge, Mass., afoot, some three hundred 

 miles to visit him. 



" Mr. Niles vacated the post of principal of the academy 

 at Clinton, Oneida Co., to preach the gospel to a few 

 scattering settlers in this then howling wilderness. His 

 first religious services, and the first public services in the 

 town, were held in the house of Jared Pratt, a rude. log 



structure where Luther Wheeler's house now stands. The 

 congregation consisted of eight persons — Mr. Niles, wife and 

 son George, Jared Pratt and wife, Mrs. Rice and her brother 

 Harvey, and Daniel Buel. It is to be regretted that the 

 particular text used on the occasion is not remembered. 

 Mrs. Rice and her mother came over from the Hill on horse- 

 back. 



*' The first death was that of a child of Wm. P. Curtis, 

 where his son, Wm. B., now lives. It was a little girl, and 

 she was found with her face in a small and shallow stream 

 of water^dead. A tin horn was blown by the family as 

 a signal of distress, which was heard by Jared Pratt, more 

 than two miles distant, who sped with all haste to the scene 

 of affliction. He was the nearest neighbor excepting Pome- 

 roy Hull, who then lived where Benjamin Cook now does. 

 The child was buried near the house. Subsequently, Mr. 

 Tuttle, father of Joel Tuttle, died, and was buried in the 

 present grounds of Elijah Allis. In July, 1806, occurred 

 the death of Harvey Pratt, the third in town. What is 

 now the old cemetery-ground had been burned off" and 

 planted with corn. A road was opened through it, and the 

 first body lowered, the late Dan Edson assisting. After- 

 wards one acre of ground was conveyed by Capt. Pratt to 

 the religious society for a public burying-ground, and the 

 bodies of the Curtis child and Mr. Tuttle were placed 

 therein. Since then have been gathered there a great con- 

 gregation." 



We have quoted the above article in full on account of 

 its interest, although not strictly in chronological order. 

 From it we learn that Jared Pratt, the first settler of 

 Prattsburgh, came on and made a small clearing in 1799, 

 and moved his family to the town in the year 1800. He 

 had then just set out in his career of life. He brought 

 with him a wife to share the vicissitudes of pioneer life, 

 and to soften and sweeten its adversities. The farm he 

 first selected and continued to occupy as long as he lived is; 

 that now owned by Mr. Luther Wheeler, and he then 

 planted a row of Lombardy poplars, which at this day 

 marks the place of the first shelter built for civilized man 

 within this township. 



" They constituted the only family in the township for 

 about two years and a half; their hardships were many and 

 their privations great. No neighbors within seven miles, 

 no roads except a mere trail, and dense forests all around 

 them. To obtain flour for their bread, Mr. Pratt would 

 yoke his oxen, fill his bag with grain, lay it across the 

 yoke of his oxen, and drive his team eleven miles to Naples, 

 where was the nearest mill to his habitation, the road all 

 the way lying in a dense forest without a habitation con- 

 tiguous to it."'*^ 



Capt. Joel Pratt first visited the country on horseback in 

 1799, and selected Hemlock Hill, where he had a log cabin 

 erected that year. In the year 1800 he came on and cleared 

 110 acres of land, sowing the same to wheat that fall. The 

 following season the wheat was harvested, and in the spring 

 of 1802 was conveyed by ark to Baltimore. Capt. Pratt 

 returned from Baltimore, and before removing his family 

 in October of that year, entered into contract for the 



, * Hotchkin's Hist. Western New York, p. 464. 



