TOWN OP URBANA. 



409 



The original Brundage family in this country came from 

 Wales and settled in Pennsylvania, near Wilkesbarre. In 

 the year 1799, James and Abram Brundage came with 

 their families to this county, and located at Painted Post, 

 taking up their abode in a double log house, where they 

 lived four years, when they removed with their families to 

 Pleasant Valley, in this town, arriving there in April, 1803. 

 James, the elder of the two, located where is now the 

 residence of his youngest son, James M. Brundage. Abram 

 Brundage settled about two miles farther up the valley, on 

 what is now the farm of his son, Hiram Brundage. 



About the year 1807, Benjamin Brundage, the father of 

 James and Abram, came from Pennsylvania to visit his 

 sons, and while here died and was buried in the cemetery in 

 Pleasant Valley. 



The family of Abram Brundage consisted of his wife, 

 whose maiden name was Polly Sims, and ten children, dl 

 follows : Benjamin, William, James, Jesse, Charles, Mat- 

 thew, Hiram, Alfred, Almira, and Abram S. Of these 

 there are still living James, Charles, Matthew, Hiram, and 

 Abram S., all residing in this county. 



Abram Brundage, Sr., was born in 1775, and died in 

 September, 1861. During the war of 1812 and 1814, at 

 the head of an independent company, organized in his im- 

 mediate vicinity, he entered the army, and served during the 

 greater part of the war on the northern frontier, and a por- 

 tion of the time in Canada. During the remainder of his 

 life he was familiarly known as Capt. Brundage. 



Of the descendants of Capt. Brundage who served during 

 the late Rebellion were Addison Brundage, now of Cold 

 Springs, in Urbana, who enlisted in Co. G, 22d New York 

 Cavalry, in November, 1863, and served until the close of 

 the war. 



Monroe Brundage enlisted on the 23d of April, 1861, as 

 a private in what was afterwards known as Co. I, 34th Regi- 

 ment New York Volunteers, to which further reference is 

 made in this work. 



The family of James Brundage consisted of his wife 

 (whose maiden name was Mary HoiFman) and fourteen 

 children, as follows: Philip, John, Abraham, Benjamin, 

 Polly, Sally, Henry, Samuel, George S., Catherine, Eliza- 

 beth, Daniel, James M., and Anna. Of whom there are 

 still Hving Sally Read, in Seneca Co., Ohio ; Anna Acker- 

 man, in Waterloo, N. Y. ; James M. and Daniel, on the 

 old homestead ; and George S., on an adjoining farm. 



The elder James Brundage was born in 1765, and died 

 in 1839 ; his wife died in 1815 ; he subsequently married 

 Love Blakeslee, who survived him. Philip Brundage served 

 during a part of the war in the company of which his 

 uncle, Abram, was captain ; he was taken sick, and re- 

 turned home, — his death following in a short time. Abra- 

 ham Brundage (second) wa» drafted towards the close of 

 the war, and the company to which he was assigned 

 was ordered to Buffalo; but by the time they reached 

 Dansville the war came to a close, and the command was 

 returned home and disbanded. Azariah C. Brundage, son 

 of Abraham Brundage (second), enlisted on the 25th of 

 April, 1861, in what was Company T, 34th Regiment of 

 New York Volunteer Infantry, and on the organization of 

 his company was elected a corporal, which position he held 

 52 



until the battle of Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862, in which 

 engagement he was wounded by a bullet in his neck, which 

 he still carries. In consequence of this wound he was dis- 

 charged from the service on the 30th of July, 1862. In 

 the year 1877 he was elected to the Legislature from the 

 First district of Steuben, and in the following year was 

 re-elected by an increased majority. 



Cold Spring Valley was occupied by Gen. George McClure 

 in 1802. He erected mills, and kept them in operation till 

 1814, when Henry A. Townsend took possession of the 

 valley, and resided in the '' Cold Spring House" till his 

 death, in 1839. Mr. Townsend removed from Orange 

 County to Bath in 1796, was elected county clerk in 1799, 

 and continued to hold the office till 1814. He was one of 

 the most respected, useful, and influential of the ^arly citi- 

 zens. Upon the organization of the town of Urbana, in 

 1823, he was elected to the office of first supervisor, and 

 by successive elections held the office till 1832. 



Mr. Lazarus Hammond, the founder of Hammondsport, 

 removed from Dansville to Cold Spring in 1810. He after- 

 wards settled at Hammondsport, where he resided till his 

 death. He was the first town clerk, elected upon the organ- 

 ization of the town in 1823. He was sheriff of the county 

 in 1814, and afterwards associate judge of the county court. 

 The first white child born in the town was that of Samuel 

 Baker, Jr. ; the first marriage was that of Jonathan Barney 

 and Polly Aulls, in 1794 ; the first death was that of John 

 Phillips, in September of the same year. Eliphalet Norris 

 taught the first school, at Pleasant Valley, in 1795. Caleb 

 Chapman kept the first tavern at North Urbana, and 

 Henry A. Townsend the first store at Cold Spring in 1815. 

 Capt. John Sheathar built the first saw-mill in the town, 

 in 1797, and Gen. George McClure the first grist-mill, at 

 Cold Spring, in 1802. Elder Ephraim Sanford preached 

 the first sermon, at the house of Judge Baker, in 1795. 



Darius Read was one of the first settlers at the head of 

 Pleasant Valley, on the road towards Wheeler. On the 

 20th of January, 1 870, the following facts were elicited 

 before a commission at Hammondsport, appointed by Hon. 

 Guy H. McMaster, to inquire into the lunacy of said Read. 

 A jury of twelve citizens was summoned by the sheriff, 

 and Mr. Read, on examination, said that he was eighty-one 

 years old last August. He moved on the farm where he 

 now resides in 1793 ; he had not been off the farm during 

 the last fifteen years, nor to the village (three miles distant 

 from his residence) since May, 1851, nearly nineteen years. 

 Mr. Read has enjoyed almost uninterrupted good health, 

 and called his neighbors by name as readily as though he 

 had been meeting them frequently in the daily round of 

 business, and yet many of them he had not seen during the 

 past twenty years. One in particular had gone through all 

 the changes from a school-boy to a silvery-bearded and bald- 

 headed man, and had acquired a corpulency which an alder- 

 man might envy, yet he was as readily recognized as if he 

 had retained the freckled face and flaxen hair of boyhood. 

 Mr. Read's ideas were remarkably clear and his words well 

 chosen ; in early life he had acquired a good common-school 

 education, and had also had some experience in teaching. 



The jury refused to apply the word lunatic to his case, 

 but, in accordance with his own wish, recommended the 



