TOWN OF WEST UNION. 



435 



The high land, on which the greater portion of the im- 

 proved farms are located, is for the most part quite level, 

 but cut into, along the courses of the main streams, by short, 

 deep ravines, covered with the original growth of timber. 

 The clearings are large, and buildings generally good. 

 There are few large orchards. In the northwest part 

 of the town the flat land continues across the deep, narrow 

 valley formed by Kyder Creek, as it does also in the south- 

 west corner of the town. 



The first settlers in the northwest part of West Union, 

 on the ridge north of the creek, were Uriah and B. Ingley, 

 Vincent Compton and his sons, William and Vincent, who 

 all lived in separate houses around the large spring where 

 David Sherman's house now stands ; Adam Young, from 

 Danby, settled half a mile east on the Forbes place, in 1824, 

 and in 1828 his brothers, William and Ephraim, and his 

 father, Henry Young, located on adjoining lots. Their 

 first neighbors west were Daniel Hamilton and David Baker. 

 Stephen Boyd and a Mr. Heed also settled in the neighbor- 

 hood of the ^'big spring," which was called " the village." 



A mile and a half from the Olmstead place, now Bexville, 

 in a westerly direction, the Kyder Creek rises in a deep, 

 narrow valley, where a spring stream flows from the hill at 

 the south, and following the course of the swamp, which 

 fills the narrow valley for a distance of two and a half miles 

 around to the west and south, between the high hills, de- 

 scribes a semicircle when it reaches the open valley at " Pine 

 Sapling," and flowing southwest, joins the south branch of 

 Kyder Creek, in Allegany County, flows into the Genesee 

 Biver, and finds an outlet through the great lakes into the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. A branch of Bennett's Creek, rising 

 in a large spring at the head of this swamp, is also fed by 

 this stream from the hill, which passes the thirty-feet bound- 

 ary in the wet seasons, and whose waters, thus divided, flow 

 also north to the Canisteo, and thence south into the Cl/esa- 

 peake Bay. A mile and a half to the south of this spring, 

 and at an elevation of 450 feet above its level, is the place 

 of the first settlement on the ridge which forms the central 

 part of the town, and is the highest point of land in the 

 county. A couple of miles east, around the ridge, is the 

 point of first settlement, where the Mattasons lived. Away 

 down in the narrow valley between is Bexville, nearly 500 

 feet below, and entirely hidden from view by the surround- 

 ing hill-sides, until you approach its level. 



This high central ridge, which extends east and west 

 across the town, was for years after the settlement of the 

 surrounding country, the unmolested home of the deer and 

 other wild animals, and was known as *' the Big Woods." 

 The first settlement was made after the completion of the 

 old Blossburg Railroad, in 1840, by John Shehan, who set- 

 tled on its highest point, and was joined the year after by 

 Dennis Malone, who made his first clearing on the Mike 

 Kieff*e place, on the Whitesville road. These men were 

 both natives of Ireland. Luke Fox joined them, on the 

 west, before any other settlement was made. The town of 

 West Union owes its prosperity to the building of the New 

 York and Erie Railway, in 1842-48; its principal settle- 

 ment dating back to that time. Its citizens, now prosper- 

 ous farmers, are almost entirely composed of the better class 

 of native Irishmen, who, discouraged with the vicissitudes 



of railroading, then a new industry, left the public works 

 which first brought them to this part of the State, plunged 

 into the unbroken wilderness, and working after the manner 

 of their own country, made up in muscle what they lacked 

 in means. 



Philip W. Failing is one of the oldest settlers in the east 

 part of the town. 



A Mr. Bigelow settled in the narrow valley at the outlet 

 of the swamp on Kyder Creek, known as the "pine-sapling 

 lot," in 1838, and Mr. Howard took the place lower down, 

 which included the sapling. Abel Mattason settled half a 

 mile below, in 1841. The pine-sapling was a single pine- 

 tree, of gigantic proportions, standing by itself in the open 

 valley below the swamp, and since the earliest settlement a 

 prominent landmark. This tree, which was cut down in 

 1877, measured nine feet across the stump. Rising in a 

 single stem to the height of twenty feet, it divided into 

 seven different trunks, which rose in a group to the height 

 of one hundred and ninety feet from the ground. Seven 

 thousand feet of lumber and forty thousand shingles were 

 made from its trunk. 



Land depreciated in value after the first settlements were 

 made, and many of the early settlers traded their improve- 

 ments for whatever they could get. Trading was all barter 

 and exchaa^e, except the raising of money for the payment 

 of taxes. The discontented followed the Western current, 

 and the settlements about the spring were partially aban- 

 doned, and suffered to grow up to briers and wild cherries. 

 In 1841, David Sherman came from Herkimer County, and 

 bought two hundred acres of land, including the early clear- 

 ings. These he immediately re-cleared, and commenced the 

 manufacture of cheese for market, in 1842. Mr. Sherman 

 may safely be considered the pioneer dairyman of West 

 Union. His large dairy-farm, now under the management 

 of his son and son-in-law, Eugene Sherman and Alvin C. 

 Barney, is one of the finest-looking farms in the county. 

 The front of his fine residence overlooks miles of rolling 

 hilWands, divided from each other by narrow ravines, filled 

 with standing timber, and away beyond is seen in the blue 

 distance mazy hill-tops across the county. This was the 

 seat of government, and here was opened the first post-office 

 in the town, and David Sherman, the present postmaster^ 

 has filled that office since its erection, in 1847. 



David Sherman was a supervisor during the first twelve 

 years of the town of West Union, and his neighbor, Moses 

 Forbes, one of the earliest settlers, a quarter of a mile south, 

 toward the big sapling, was town clerk until 1851. 



Alvin Chapin was an early settler in the southwest part 

 of the town, and had a large clearing on the hill south of 

 the south branch of Kyder Creek, in 1842. As early as 

 1841 his little log cabin was chosen by ex-Governor Sey- 

 mour as a stopping-place for the night, when passing through 

 the country. 



The surroundings have changed ; capacious and well-filled 

 barns greet the eye, and a modern residence, replacing the 

 old log house, is filled with all the luxuries of a refined and 

 successful people. This beautiful farm supports a cheese- 

 factory, and is occupied by Hiram and Giles Chapin, sons 

 of the first settler. 



Alexander Keenan came in 1849, and settled on the 



