TOWN OF THURSTON. 



387 



and northwest corn'er of Addison, and is well stocked with 

 a variety of fish. It has always been a favorite resort. 

 Early settlers came from the north of the town to catch 

 fish in this pond, and pickerel weighing upwards of 100 

 pounds have been taken from it. It is fed by a subterra- 

 nean spring, and is surrounded by steep hills, upon which 

 are fine farming-lands. This lake was stocked with bass 

 by the fish commission in 1873. 



The Cranberry or Friends' Pond, to the west, near the 

 south line of the town, is a bottomless spring, half a mile 

 across. It is located on the top of the dividing ridge, a 

 mile or more from the Canisteo Eiver and five hundred and 

 fifty feet above the river-valley, and is surrounded by rolling 

 lands, which are now well-improved farms. It is filled with 

 pickerel and perch — -which are the natural fish of the pond 

 — and is remarkable for the coolness of its waters. The 

 early settlers resorted here to gather cranberries, which 

 grew in great abundance upon the soft, boggy lands sur- 

 rounding it. 



M. 0. Keith, who came from Massachusetts in 1834 and 

 settled a mile south of Ilisingville, near Mr. Jack, was the 

 father of Albert W. Keith, the proprietor of the Merchant- 

 ville mill and a prominent citizen of the town. 



John Yanderwarker and Henry Forburg made a clearing 

 between Risingville and Merchantville in 1820, and planted 

 an orchard, which was abandoned, and, growing up to pines, 

 was forgotten. In 1876 lumbermen, cutting this second 

 growth of heavy timber, discovered a part of the apple- 

 trees standing at regular distances from each other. 



William Hawley settled on the Phillips place, near Mer- 

 chantville, in 1820. 



Fenner Eddy came from Rhode Island, and in 1832 

 opened a custom-tannery a short distance below, on the 

 place now occupied by his son, Jeremiah F. Eddy. In 

 1836, Stephen Aldrich and Fenner Eddy were mentioned 

 often on the town clerk's books as receiving wolf-bounty 

 certificates. 



The first saw-mill was built by Paris Wheelock, on Otter 

 Creek, near the east line. 



Lifus Fish was an early settler in the northeast, on a 

 branch of the Conhocton. John Corbett settled on North 

 Hill, near him, and was for years well known throughout 

 the town. 



Many marshes, or bodies of level, wet land, were found 

 upon the hill-tops in the southern part of the town, some 

 of which still exist, while most of those cleared have been 

 drained, and are rich bodies of land, though small in 

 extent. The lands furnished a variety of timber. The 

 early settlers chose that covered with hemlock, beech, and 

 maple, avoiding the pine lands until lumbermen came in 

 and bought the lands they had rejected, because of the 

 stumps, which never rotted. When these lands were found 

 to be valuable, they were already taken up. 



Going to Bath to buy goods, or make payments and con- 

 tracts with the land-office ; to Erwin's mill to trade, and to 

 Cameron Corners to attend election and town business ; or 

 training at Troupsburgh, were the only pleasure excursions 

 of fifty years ago ; but a variety of occupation was to be 

 had at home, — hunting, fishing, and clearing new land, or 

 searching the deep woods for stray cattle. 



Edwin Merchant came from Herkimer County, in 1841, 

 and purchasing at the land-office the site of the present 

 village, opened a blacksmith- and wagon-shop in the woods 

 between Wm. Hawley 's farm and Fenner Eddy's tannery. 

 In 1845 he built the saw-mill. The opening of the lum- 

 bering settlement at Risingville increased the business of 

 this place, and in 1854, Alvah Carpenter and 0. P. Alder- 

 man purchased the store of Harley Sears, who moved from 

 Risingville the year before. 



From that time Merchantville has been a trading-point 

 and business centre. A daily mail is received from Camp- 

 bell, continuing through to Risingville, three miles above, 

 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. There are here 

 four stores, a saw- and shingle-mill, two blacksmith-shops, 

 a wagon- and a paint-shop ; Methodist Episcopal church 

 and parsonage. Christian church, school-house, and twenty- 

 six dwellings. It is located along the north bank of Otter 

 Creek, and is an old-looking village, though neat in appear- 

 ance. To the south, a quarter of a mile distant, a steep 

 hill, extending past the village, rises to the height of one 

 hundred and fifty feet, covered with the debris of fallen 

 timber from which the valuable portion has long since 

 been removed. The surrounding country, though rough 

 and broken, aftbrds a liberal support to the business of the 

 place. 



In the year 1852, Josephus Turbell, of Goshen, Orange 

 Co., and Charles Osborne, of Corning, bought a large tract 

 of heavy pine timber in the eastern part of the town, and 

 erected a large mill in the valley of Risingville. At this 

 time there was a clearing of some 15 acres in the valley, 

 upon which were two houses, one of which was occupied 

 by Noble H. Rising, and an old seedling apple-orchard, 

 which for the inferiority of its fruit was unrivaled, 

 Campbell — a store, tavern, and platform beside the Buffalo 

 and Corning Railway, seven miles distant — was the outlet. 

 Three miles towards Campbell, in the eastern part of Thurs- 

 ton, was Merchantville, where was a saw-mill, the Eddy 

 tannery, Mr. Merchant's wagon -shop, half a dozen houses, 

 and a school-house, in which meetings were held. The 

 Risingville mill was a leading institution of its kind. Two 

 40-horse power engines furnished the power. An old- 

 fashioned gate, with a single saw, cut all dimensions of lum- 

 ber to order ; a second cut the sides of the log into boards, 

 leaving the flat body to be turned down and run through 

 the 30 saws of the " gang," which left it a pile of finished 

 boards, ready to be stored in the mill-yard, or hauled on 

 wagons to Campbelltown for shipment. A shingle-mill, a 

 picket-saw, a wood-saw, and an " edgep" completed the 

 equipment. Some thirty hands were required in and about 

 the mill. A blacksmith-shop was a necessary adjunct. A 

 large boarding-house was built near the mill for the single 

 hands, and dwellings were erected along the road for the 

 families of the married ones. 



The old Rising House was turned into a boarding-house 

 for the teamsters and choppers in the woods, and large 

 barns were built for the accommodation of their teams. A 

 store, the first in the town, was opened near the mill by 

 Harley Sears. Nineteen houses were erected in the settle- 

 ment, and men began to buy farms and improve them in 

 the immediate surrounding country. A school was estab- 



