412 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



loaded with staves down the Conhocton from Bath ; in 

 1800 he removed to Dansville, opened a store, and during 

 the winter took in 4000 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels 

 of pork, which he shipped in the spring on four arks from 

 Arkport, on the Canisteo, to Baltimore. In 1802 he pur- 

 chased the Cold Spring mill-site, half-way between Bath 

 and the head of Crooked Lake, of one Skinner, a Quaker, 

 with 200 acres of land, and also purchased, from the land- 

 office and others, about 800 acres to secure the whole priv- 

 ilege. Here he erected a saw-mill, flouring-mill, fulling- 

 mill, and carding-machine. The flouring-mill, with two 

 run of stones, was completed in the best manner in three 

 months. Gen. McClure's design in building this mill was 

 to convert as much as practicable of the wheat of the 

 farmers into flour, it being safer to ship over so dangerous 

 a navigation than the wheat in bulk, which was sure to be 



Crooked Lake, notwithstanding the famous embargo of 

 President Jefferson. This, however, turned out a fruitless 

 enterprise, as the farmers usually did not thrash their grain 

 and get it ready for market till winter, and then the lake 

 was frozen over and the schooner could not sail. 



We have thus given the history of the first commerce 

 on Lake Keuka, and the first commercial enterprise at 

 Hammondsport. From this time forward till 1825, the 

 place exhibited nothing beyond the ordinary routine of 

 farm-life. Capt. John Sheathar, as we have seen, was the 

 first settler, in 1796. The land originally purchased by 

 him became the property of Judge Lazarus Hammond, in 

 1807. Several years after. Judge Hammond became a 

 resident of the place, and built his house on the site of the 

 present residence of Deloss Rose, Esq., on Sheathar Street. 

 He laid out a portion of his farm into lots and streets, 



c&tz:^ 



lost should the ark be wrecked on the passage. He sent 

 hand-bills into all the adjoining country, offering liberal 

 prices for wheat delivered at his mills or at his stores in Penn 

 Yan, Pittstown, or Dansville. He received during the first 

 winter 20,000 bushels of wheat, two-thirds of which he 

 floured and packed in barrels at his mills, and in the winter 

 built eisht arks at Bath and four on the Canisteo, and in 

 the spring ran the flour to Baltimore and the wheat to 

 Columbia. He cleared enough in that one year's operations 

 to pay all the expenditures and improvements on his Cold 

 Spring property. 



While operating at Cold Spring, Gen. McClure erected 

 the first store-house at Hammondsport. He also built the 

 first vessel on the lake, the schooner Sally of about thirty 

 tons burden, for the purpose of carrying wheat from Penn 

 Yan to his store-house at the head of the lake. This was 

 in 1803. He advertised his vessel as a regular trader on 



and gave the public square to the village. William Hast- 

 ings was the first merchant, and built the first store, in 

 1825. Lemuel D. Hastings came in that year and entered 

 his brother's store as clerk. He remained in that capacity 

 till 1835, when he embarked in mercantile business for 

 himself, and has continued in it ever since. In the fall of 

 1825, Ira G. Smith, of Prattsburgh, came and erected a 

 store ; and about the same time a few others put up build- 

 ings about the public square. 



The construction of the Erie Canal, at this period, 

 changed the entire route of transportation for the pro- 

 ducts of the country, — sending them north to that great 

 thoroughfare, and thence east to the seaboard, instead of 

 southward by the waters of the Susquehanna. Crooked 

 Lake became the most available route to the Eri^ Canal 

 for the products of all this section of country, and 

 gave to Hammondsport, at the head of the lake, a new 



