TOWN OF PEATTSBURGH. 



357 



purchase of the town of Prattsburgh, to which he removed 

 from Hemlock Hill in the year 1805. 



ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF THE TOWN. 



On the 16th day of June, 1802, Col. Robert Troup, chief 

 agent of the Pulteney estate, entered into a contract with 

 Capt. Joel Pratt, then of the county of Columbia, and 

 William Root, of the county of Albany, whereof the follow- 

 ing is the substance : 



I. Messrs. Pratt and Root were to take upon themselves 

 the sale and settlement of township No. 6, 3d range of town- 

 ships in the county of Steuben. The township thus desig- 

 nated was afterwards organized as Prattsburgh, in honor of 

 the founder. 



II. The survey was to be made in convenient lots to 

 suit purchasers, at the expense of the said Pratt and Root, 

 and to be made as soon as practicable. We learn from 

 other sources of information that the survey was made by 

 Hon. William Kersey. 



III. The third article contains the stipulation for reserv- 

 ing 200 acres, to be appropriated forever to the use of a 

 clergyman, who shall ultimately reside in said township, to 

 minister to them according to the Christian faith and doc- 

 trine. 



IV. The fourth article contains a charge to Messrs. 

 Pratt and Root to exercise great diligence in the matter of 

 effecting sales. 



V. The fifth article relates to the price of land, which in 

 no case is to be less than |3 an acre, and as much more as 

 possible. An article dated 2d of February, 1803, shows 

 that from that time lands might be sold for $2.50 an acre. 



VI. to XIII. The subsequent articles, to the thirteenth, 

 contain several provisions relating to the manner of payment 

 and the form of security to be taken whenever the lands in 

 question were sold upon credit. 



The two remaining articles stipulate that Messrs. Pratt 

 and Root should receive as a compensation for their care 

 and trouble, and as an incitement to diligence, one moiety 

 or half part of so much of the purchase-money as (com- 

 puting the number of acres contained in such lots) shall 

 exceed the sum of $2 per acre ; but with the provision that 

 no portion of this should be paid till said Pratt and Root 

 had themselves paid into the land-office of the Pulteney es- 

 tate, at Geneva, the sum of $32,000. 



The objects of these two original purchasers were un- 

 doubtedly dissimilar. Mr. Pratt had determined to form 

 a church as well as a town, and it was his intention to have 

 cast in his lot with the hardy pioneers of the new colony. 

 Mr. Root, on the contrary, continuing to reside in Albany, 

 looked upon the enterprise merely in the light of a hopeful 

 speculation. 



Concerning the former, Mr. Hotchkin, in his History of 

 Western New York, remarks as follows : " It was his de- 

 termination to settle himself and family on this township? 

 and to establish a religious society in the order to which he 

 had been accustomed. With a view to the accomplishment 

 of this object, he required every person to whom he sold 

 land to give a note to the amount of $15 on each 100 acres 

 of land purchased by him, payable within a given tinae, 



with legal interest annually, till paid to the trustees of the 

 religious society which should be formed."* 



Rev. John Niles came to Prattsburgh, accompanied by 

 his family, in the autumn of 1803. He was a licentiate of 

 a Congregational Association, and in feeble health, for 

 which reason he desired to combine with the ministry the 

 invigorating labor of an agriculturist. Capt. Pratt gave 

 him a farm of 80 acres as an inducement to settle here. 

 It was a portion of the present farm of Israel B. Van 

 Housen. 



William P. Curtis, Samuel Tuthill, and Pomeroy Hull 

 came in the year 1804, and also, later in the same year, 

 Salisbury Burton, who occupied for many years what used 

 to be so well known as the Burton farm. 



In 1806 we find a goodly array of settlers. In addition 

 to those already named, were the following : Enoch Niles, 

 Rufus Blodget, Jesse Waldo, Judge Hopkins, John Hop- 

 kins, Deacon Ebenezer Rice, Robert Porter, Deacon Ga- 

 maliel Loomis, Samuel Hayes, Deacon Abiel Linsley, Moses 

 Lyon, Uriel Chapin, Asher Bull, Roban Hillis, Stephen 

 Prentiss, and perhaps others. 



Of the pioneers of this town, Mr. Hotchkin remarks that 

 " almost all the heads of families who first came in were 

 members of the Congregational Churches, and persons of 

 more than ordinary intelligence. They were drawn hither 

 by the expectation of enjoying good religion and civil 

 society. They were peculiarly a homogeneous popula- 

 tion." 



The plan proposed by Capt. Pratt for forming a perma- 

 nent fund for the support of the gospel was at first adopted 

 with great unanimity, but subsequently it became a source 

 of dissatisfaction, and after a few years was relinquished. 

 It was probably continued long enough to produce all the 

 beneficial effects its author had in view, and it was certainly 

 an important means of drawing to this settlement an unusu- 

 ally large number of religious and intelligent families. 



Capt. Pratt and his partner, Mr. Root, were not of " con- 

 genial aims and purposes." To end the differences between 

 them it became necessary for the former to buy out the in- 

 terest of the latter, which was done in the year 1806 by 

 the payment to Mr. Root of nearly $8000. In the same 

 year the original contract was rescinded between all the 

 contractors, and a new one entered into between the agent 

 of the Pulteney estate and Capt. Pratt, Joel Pratt, Jr., and 

 Ira Pratt for so much of the township as remained at that 

 time unsold. This contract, like the former one, was re- 

 scinded about 1810 or 1811, in consequence of Capt. 

 Pratt's inability to comply with its terms, — an inability 

 resulting from a serious pecuniary embarrassment beyond 

 the power of human calculation to foresee or of human 

 prudence to overcome. 



The first frame building erected in town was a barn built 

 by Joel Pratt, in 1804. It stood on the rear of the lot 

 now owned by Grandus Lewis, on Chapel Street, and was 

 subsequently removed by Mr. Pinney to his farm, in the 

 east part of the town. At an early time, when families 

 were coming in, this barn used to be a common stopping- 

 place for them till they could arrange the rude appoint- 



., . f- Hist, Western New York, p. 406. 



