TROUPSBUEGH. 



■^•►- 



GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION. 



Troupsburgh lies upon the southern border of the 

 county, west of the centre, and is bounded north by Jasper, 

 east by Woodhull, south by the Pennsylvania line, and west 

 by West Union and part of Grreenwood. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



The surface of this town is principally a hilly upland, 

 broken by the deep valleys of small streams. The highest 

 summits in the county are in this town. They reach an alti- 

 tude of twenty-five hundred feet above tide-water. Troup's 

 Creek, flowing south, is the principal stream. The soil, 

 which is productive, is chiefly a slaty and clayey loam. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



An old citizen has given us the following account of 

 Troupsburgh and some of its early settlers : " In 1808 there 

 was no road on Bennett's Creek, nor on Crosby Creek, nor 

 Big Creek, nor indeed on any creek except Col. Bill's Creek. 

 Up this creek, and running to and through Troupsburgh to 

 Cowanesque, Pa., was a road called the State road, which 

 had been opened by the Pulteney estate, for the purpose of 

 settling their lands. The towns of Woodhull, Troupsburgh, 

 Jasper, West Union, Greenwood, Hartsville, and with very 

 small exceptions, Canisteo and Hornellsville, were an un- 

 broken wilderness. The State road passed up the creek 

 seven miles, following its bank to a place then called Hog- 

 back Hill. It ascended a ridge between Col. Bill's Creek 

 and a small rivulet coming in from the left. Running up 

 the point of the ridge, which was very steep, the summit 

 was gained by no small effort, and the road was on the very 

 verge of a precipice. Whether this peculiar shape of the 

 ridge gave it the name of Hog-back, I never learned. From 

 this point to the settlement in Troupsburgh was eight or 

 nine miles, making the distance from Col. Bill's some six- 

 teen miles of as dense a forest as thousands of years of un- 

 disturbed growth could make it. Here nature had a park 

 of almost boundless extent, into which she had gathered a 

 menagerie which was always on exhibition, and without the 

 usual vexation of a gate or door fee. That old forest chief, 

 the noble elk, still stood at the head of his race ; the lesser 

 lights of the same family were almost without number ; the 

 black bear was everywhere to be found crossing the path of 

 the traveler ; wolves in droves sent forth their discordant 

 notes from every part of the wilderness. The panther, wild- 

 cat, and fox seemed to regard the new animal, man, with 

 idle curiosity, and roamed over this magnificent hunting- 

 ground as though the new-comer was an accession to their 

 list of friends. 



" The first family then on the road was that of Andrew 

 Simpson. He lived in a new log house on the bank of a 

 392 



little stream a short distance north of what is now Jasper 

 Corners, and did a little at blacksmithing in a small way for 

 the settlers, who were then only a few families. The farm 

 then owned by Mr. Simpson is now a very valuable property. 

 He had several sons, among whom were John, Hiram, and 

 Darius, and a daughter, Minerva, who married Hon. Jeffrey 

 Smith. 



" Ebenezer Spencer lived a little off the State road, a short 

 distance before reaching Simpson's. He lived to see the 

 forest become a fruitful field, and bequeathed to his pos- 

 terity not only the fruits of his arduous toil, but, what was 

 vastly better, a name without reproach. He had several 

 children ; one of the daughters married Smith Hayes. 

 Spencer soon had a neighbor near him by the name of 

 Wooley. After leaving Simpson's the next house was that 

 of a good-natured, generous-hearted old Dutchman, by the 

 name of Brutzman — they called him Uncle Nicholas ; he 

 had a brother by the name of Adam, who lived a little east 

 of him, at a place afterwards called the Five Corners. 

 Uncle Nicholas had one or more sons, and four or five 

 daughters. The eldest son, John, when I last knew him, 

 was a young man of good habits and much promise. The 

 whole family have passed now beyond my knowledge. 



" Andrew Craig, in 1810 or 1811, settled a little above 

 Simpson's, on the opposite side of the road, and soon made 

 a splendid farm at or near the site of the present village of 

 Jasper. Mr. Craig was an energetic, enterprising man, 

 and soon began to develop the resources of the region of 

 country where he had located his home. He was the first 

 to introduce the making of butter as an article of com- 

 merce in that town, or in all that part of the country. It 

 soon became a very remunerative business, in which his 

 neighbors rapidly joined. Mr. Craig for some time did the 

 main part of the marketing, by taking the butter for him- 

 self and neighbors in the fall or winter to the Philadelphia 

 market by team. In after-years he was engaged quite ex- 

 tensively in droving, and at one time nearly lost his life by 

 the falling of a bridge with himself and drove of cattle 

 upon it. Mr. Craig came out alive, but was ever after, I 

 think, a cripple. He lived to see the third generation of 

 his posterity. Two of his grandsons are largely engaged in 

 the mercantile business in the village of their own making ; 

 one of them (Willis E. Craig) was sheriff of the county 

 in 1867-68. Two of his daughters were the wives of Hon. 

 William Hunter, and one was the wife of Dr. Charles 

 Hunter. 



" Old Mr. Marlatt soon followed Mr. Craig, and settled a 

 little above him on the spue side of the road. Mr. Marlatt 

 had several sons, of whom were John, Abraham, Joseph, 

 and Gideon. John, the oldest, located farther on, near Uncle 

 Nicholas, the Dutchman's. He began in the midst of the 



