U R B A N A. 



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GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION. 

 The town of Urbana is situated near the northeast part 

 of the county, in latitude 42° and 30' north, and about 15° 

 west from the meridian of Washington. It is bounded 

 north by Pulteney and Prattsburgh, east by Wayne and 

 Bradford, south by Bath, and west by a part of Bath and 

 the town of Wheeler. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



The surface of the town is divided into two nearly equal 

 ranges of highlands by the valley of Keuka Lake and 

 Pleasant Yalley, which lies at its head. The lake and 

 valley are skirted by hills which rise at first quite abruptly, 

 and then more gradually, until at a distance of from one to 

 three miles they attain an altitude of nearly a thousand 

 feet. The lake is twenty miles in length from Penn Yan 

 to Hammondsport, from half a mile to a mile in width, 

 and lies in a northeast and southwest direction. There is 

 also another head to this lake at Branchport, six miles dis- 

 tant from Penn Yan; this branch lies nearly^north and 

 south, and is about eight miles long and half a mile wide. 

 It is bordered by the same abrupt hills on each side, and 

 is divided from the foot fork of the lake by Bluff Point, 

 which, at or near the point, attains the width of a mile and 

 gradually widens to two or a little more, and rises to the 

 height of the corresponding hills on either side of the lake. 

 The extreme elevation of Bluff Point is reached about half 

 a mile from the point which divides the waters of the lake, 

 and is seven hundred feet high ; yet the slope is so gradual, 

 not only of Bluff Point, but of all the lands skirting the 

 lake, that it is tillable to the water's edge. 



Pleasant Yalley is bordered by the same range of high 

 hills, which make a turn at the head of the lake, so that 

 the valley lies nearly east and west. At the head of the 

 lake it is only half a mile wide, but gradually opens to a 

 mile and a half at a distance of three miles up. The land 

 of this valley is an unbroken level of heavy clay, but upon 

 exposure to the atmosphere and frost slakes into a fine dark 

 mould or loam. It is very strong and productive either 

 under the plow or for meadow-land, for which it is mostly 



used. 



The lands of this town have ever been celebrated for 

 their very fine quality of winter wheat, and not only the 

 certainty of a crop, but the extraordinary high flavor and 

 perfection of almost all kinds of fruit. Both the soil and 

 climate of this peculiar lake-basin, especially on its northern 

 rim, render it emphatically a fruit section. The sloping 

 lands on the north side of the valley and lake are the 

 favored localities of the grape. The soil is a loose, gravelly 

 loam, with a slight mixture of clay. In some places the 

 gravel is round and clean, mixed with coarse sand and a 



slight portion of lime, which often adheres to the sand and 

 gravel till the whole becomes a solid mass of concrete. The 

 land is extremely dry, loose and porous, and without any 

 hard pan, resting upon a slate rock formation. This rock 

 occasionally crops out upon the surface, but is generally 

 covered with several feet of the porous soil, which is ad- 

 mirably adapted, not only to the growth of the vine, but 

 to the perfect ripening of the most valuable varieties of 

 the grape. 



The climate is mellowed by the cold, deep, and pure 

 waters of the lake, and by the particular form and .height 

 of the hills, which so break up and destroy the currents 

 of cold, sweeping winds, that so cripple everything in 

 their onward sweep over the more elevated and exposed 

 localities not far distant. The average temperature of the 

 thermometer is several degrees higher here than at any 

 other locality in this county, and will compare favorably 

 with that of the city of New York. Fog, also, which is 

 the great enemy of the vine, as well as of the grape, is not 

 known in this locality, while almost every clear morning its 

 distant line is easily traceable along the valley of the Con- 

 hocton River, only eight miles distant. This is probably 

 caused by the fact that the lake and its tributaries are fed 

 almost exclusively by clear, cold spring water. Cold Spring 

 Brook, which forms its inlet, flows mostly from a limestone 

 rock, and gushes up pure, cold, and sparkling. It is only 

 five miles long, and yet it has been sufficient to propel two 

 run of stone almost constantly for over seventy years. It 

 used to be celebrated for its fine speckled trout, till the line 

 of the angler had so thinned their ranks that few have been 

 taken of late years.* 



EARLY SETTLEMENT. 



In the spring of 1793 the first permanent settlers came 

 to Pleasant Yalley, — William Aulls and his son Thomas, 

 from Beading, Pa.,— and settled on the south side of the 

 valley, and about one mile up from the lake. They cleared a 

 piece, put it into corn, and raised sixty bushels from a single 

 acre, being the first land cultivated in this valley. In the fall, 

 Mr. Aulls returned to Beading, and brought his family via 

 Blossburg, Lawrenceville, Painted Post, and Bath, with a 

 two-horse wagon, following the road then just being cut 

 through the forest. 



The same fall, Mr. Aulls was followed by Samuel Baker, 

 Bichard Daniels, and Amos Stone. The last three were 

 actually the first who pitched their tents, as they had made 

 their purchases before Mr. Aulls came. 



Bichard Baker, Samuel Daniels, and Amos Stone were 

 originally from the vicinity of Hudson, on the North Biver, 



*-See history of grape culture, in general chapter. 



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