358 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



ments of their own cabins. It was also the usual place of 

 holding public worship. Mr. Pratt soon added to this barn 

 a frame house, which stood on ground now occupied by the 

 residence of Martin Pinney, and which, with important 

 additions and improvements, is now the residence of Mr. 

 Elias Wygant. 



The first merchants of the town were Joel Pratt, Jr., 

 and Ira Pratt. Aaron Bull kept the first hotel. It was 

 built of logs, and opened in 1806 or 1807. It stood ad- 

 joining Dr. Pratt's office, where the store of Martin Pin- 

 ney now stands. In the year 1808 three log houses stood 

 on the east side of the public square ; one was the resi- 

 dence of Henry Allis, and stood on the same site as the 

 dwelling now occupied by Elijah Allis ; the second was the 

 residence of Cyril Ward, and stood near the present resi- 

 dence of Mrs. Rice ; the third was owned by Capt. Theo- 

 dore Brown, and stood on the site of the present residence 

 of Mr. Thos. Van Tuyl. 



Judge Porter at that time lived in a log house which 

 stood upon the same ground or near the present residence 

 of John C. Higby. Add to these the first meeting-house, 

 and you have the village complete as it was in that early day. 



The first burying-ground was the one on the Bath road, 

 just south of the village. It was laid out in 1806. We 

 have before alluded to it as receiving first the remains of 

 Harvey Pratt, and then of three or four others, who first 

 died in the settlement, as the forerunners of the immense 

 multitude now resting there. Here sleep most of the pio- 

 neers<K)f Prattsburgh, whose names on the simple monu- 

 ments recall to the present generation the " forefiithers of 

 the hamlet." 



ROAD TO BATH. 



The two-rod road to which reference has been made, did 

 not continue for a long time to be the principal thorough- 

 fare to Bath. The same road, which is usually traveled at 

 the present day, leading to the village, was cut through a 

 dense forest, in 1805, at the joint expense of Capt. Pratt 

 and the Pulteney estate. It intersected the road leading 

 to Geneva, near Brown's Hollow, but for several years was 

 next to impassable. In 1807, two roads were cut from the 

 village of Prattsburgh to Crooked Lake, one opening the 

 way to West Hill. Each of these roads nearly correspond 

 to the ones now in use. 



Till 1808, Bath was the nearest post- village. During 

 that year a post-route was established from Geneva to Bath, 

 passing through the village of Prattsburgh, over which the 

 mail was carried on horseback, generally, once a week. 

 That year the Prattsburgh Post-office was established, and 

 Joel Pratt, Jr., was postmaster. It was nearly twelve 

 months before Mr. Pratt was put in possession of a mail- 

 bag, the mail matter designed for this office being taken 

 from the bag at Geneva and brought here in a separate 

 parcel ; so, too, the mail here was made up in a separate 

 package and deposited in the bag on reaching Bath. These 

 were not the only difficulties. Daniel Cruger, who in those 

 days represented this district in Congress, contrived to get 

 the stage-route from Geneva to Bath on the east side of 

 the lake, thus leaving Prattsburgh unprovided with mail 

 facilities. Mr. Pratt was obliged, under these circum- 

 stances, to send mail matter to Bath as he had opportunity, 



and receive from thence what was in that office in the same 

 precarious manner. On making complaint to the depart- 

 ment of the injustice of this arrangement, he was author- 

 ized to provide a mail-carrier for a regular weekly mail till 

 other arrangements could be made. These were effi3Cted 

 soon after, and since that time no irre^ularitv has occurred 

 in the mails. Since the establishment of the railroads the 

 citizens have been favored with a daily delivery. 



HONORABLE MENTION. 



The first child born of white parents in this town was 

 Marietta, daughter of Jared Pratt. It is recorded of her : 

 " She resided here till 1836, and we know not, within the 

 whole range of our town's history, that there ever lived 

 among us an individual whose life better exemplified the 

 Christian walk. She was but a little way removed from 

 total blindness, yet, notwithstanding the loss of so impor- 

 tant a sense, she was well educated, and lived the life of a 

 child of God, and died in the sure and certain hope of a 

 glorious resurrection.'* 



The first marriage celebrated in the town was between 

 Isaac Pardee and a daughter of Deacon Waldo. 



The first male child born in Prattsburgh was Charles 

 Waldo, who still resides here, and has reared a family of 

 five sons, who are all settled elsewhere. 



LIFE IN THE EARLY DAYS. 



" The early years of our town's history," say the local 

 historians, " were not days of modern refinement. Those 

 were days of patient toil and patient endurance. The pio- 

 neers of our early history were strangers to the moderately- 

 luxurious appointments of our modern homes. For a few 

 years the present residence of John C. Higby was the only 

 house which art had embellished or paint adorned, to feast 

 the eye of the traveler throughout the whole distance of 

 the weary route leading from Geneva to Bath, through 

 Prattsburgh. This was called the ' Lily of the Yalley.' 

 The frugal housewives of those days knew nothing, or at 

 least experienced none of the benefits or care of three-ply 

 carpets, hair-cloth sofas, or marble-top centre-tables ; no 

 more did they have the tribulations of a modern party, 

 with its knackery of ice-creams and jelly-cakes, five layers 

 deep ; pleasure carriages then formed no part of a farmer's 

 inventory. 



" These early settlers generally came here in the winter, 

 and upon ox-sleds, subsisting throughout their journey 

 upon their own provisions. Deacon Waldo and Judge 

 Hopkins, the morning previous to their arrival, found their 

 stores reduced to two loaves of bread, being then at Sher- 

 man's Hollow. 



" In 1805, Stephen Prentiss, Warham Parsons, and 

 Aaron Cook purchased adjoining farms in that part of the 

 town known as West Hill. The same year Mr. Prentiss 

 occupied his place. Mr. Parsons, the next year, settled on 

 his farm, and the year following Deacon Cook became a 

 permanent resident, and occupied his place till the day of 

 his death. In 1807, Michael Keith purchased and began 

 the cultivation of a farm in Biker Hollow, where he lived 

 in undisturbed solitude till the advent of Thomas Biker 

 and William Drake, in the year 1810. 



