T H U R S T O K 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



Thurston, formed from Cameron , Feb. 28, 1844, is an 

 interior town, situated southeast of the centre of the county. 

 Its surface consists of high, rolling upland, chiefly, forming 

 the dividing ridge between the Conhocton and Canisteo 

 Eivers. The streams are Stockton Creek, in the northwest 

 part of the town, and Michigan Creek, in the south, flowing 

 in deep, narrow ravines, bordered by steep hill-sides. The 

 soil is chiefly a shaly and gravelly loam. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



In the northwest corner of the town of Thurston rises a 

 high ridge of hills, north of Stocking Creek, and occupying 

 a portion of the town, comprising six square miles, separated 

 from the remainder of the town by a deep, narrow ravine, 

 known as the Gulf This gulf is impassable, except at a 

 single point at the south, where is a flat of some six acres, 

 occupied by the steam saw-mill of A. E. Yost, and the 

 usual accompanying residences. The Gulf above is narrow. 

 and dark, from 300 to 400 feet deep, and filled with the 

 original growth of hemlock and hard timber. The hill is 

 high and quite broken. It was on this high land that 

 Luke Bonny and William Smith made the first settlement 

 in the town, in 1813. Mr. Bonny received much encour- 

 agement from the land-ofiice, and was awarded the job of 

 cutting a road from Bath south, through the town, crossing 

 Otter Creek at Bisingville. 



The hill on which he settled still bears his pame. In 

 1823 his widow was living in the valley below, where he 

 had previously died. 



Anderson Carpenter, brother of Timothy Carpenter, 

 settled near the Methodist Episcopal church, in the north- 

 west corner of the town, in 1813, and he, too, died almost 

 alone in the wilderness. He was killed by the fall of a 

 tree, in 1817. 



Amos Dickinson, whose sons, David, Samuel, and Amos 

 Dickinson, are w^ell-known residents of the town, settled 

 near Anderson Carpenter, in 1814, moving from Bath to 

 that place. Joseph Fluent joined them in 1817, and the 

 next year (1818) was married to Fanny Dickinson. These 

 were the first persons married in Thurston. 



David Smith, brother of William, and father of Mrs. 

 Gay, came in 1822. 



In 1826, Harvey Haliiday, Jacob Parker, John and 

 Boanerges Fluent, and John Stocking had joined the 

 settlement on Bonny Hill. 



The first school was taught by Caroline Yinan, in 1818, 

 near the present school-house. A school-meeting was 

 called in 1828, and $100 were appropriated to build a frame 

 school-house, 20 by 24 feet in size. In December, at a 

 gpecial meeting which was called to buy a stove, it was * 

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" voted that all hardness and quarreling in this district 

 shall cease from this date, and we shall live in peace, as 

 neighbors ought to do." This frame school-house was the 

 old red school-house, still standing near the church, in 

 which the early meetings were held, and which was re- 

 paired and painted red in 1848. 



Harlow Smith, for many years a prominent and highly- 

 respected citizen of Thurston, came from Hector in 1826 

 and settled on Bonny Hill. His son, Pitt M. Smith, the 

 only remaining member of the family, still lives in the 

 town, near the old Bonny place. 



Moses D. Depue, father of John S. Depue and A. R. 

 Depue, now of Bath, but for many years leading citizens 

 of Thurston, settled on Bonny Hill in 1830. 



Stephen Aldrich, with his sons, Warner M., Thomas S., 

 Stephen, and George, — oiie of whom, Warner, was mar- 

 ried, — came from Bhode Island and located in the south 

 part of the town in 1822. Thomas Aldrich still occupies 

 the old homestead between Bisingville and the little sheet 

 of water known as Friends' Pond, so called from the fact 

 that these early settlers were of the Society of Friends. 

 Bev. Mr. Tripp used to come from the East to preach with 

 them at the settlement The older members of the family 

 are still respected members of the Society of Friends and 

 leading citizens. Leonard Aldrich, who was elected asso- 

 ciate judge in 187-, is a son of Warner M. Aldrich. 



Stephenson Pugsley settled half a mile southwest of Ste- 

 phen Aldrich. From this high rolling land may be seen 

 the cleared hills beyond Merchantville and Bisingville, and 

 the still higher lands of Bonny Hill, to the northwest. 



William and James Jack, from Cecil Co., Md., were also 

 early settlers near the Friends. William Jack still lives on 

 the farm where he first cleared an acre of land in 1822, 

 and returned to Maryland for his family, moving with slow- 

 going oxen and camping at Campbelltown while he cut a 

 road to his farm. James N. Jack, the veteran school- 

 teacher of the town, and Christie A. Jack, who occupies 

 the old homestead, are his sons. 



Samuel Fisk, who came in the same year, occupied the 

 joining lot towards the east. Amos, Ethias, and Boralis 

 Fisk lived at Merchantville, Ethias building his house 

 where Deacon Wm. Merchant lives, next to the old store, 

 and the two others below. 



There was no one living south between the Friends' Set- 

 tlement and the river. Seth Cook and Arnold Payne, both 

 natives of Bhode Island, were early settlers near Thomas 

 Aldrich. 



The Goodhue Pond, near this settlement,^-which was 

 called New Michigan, — is a deep body of pure water, 

 1200 yards in length and half as wide, and lying in the 

 southern part of Thurston, northeast corner of Cameron, 



