The Genesee Country. 
of the season they could number 15 families. The same year, a 
grist and saw mill was in the course of erection, an important ad- 
dition to the comfort of a life in the wilderness. Necessity, that 
stern preceptress, had induced the settlers to make all practicable 
provision for the coming winter, and as their numbers were ra- 
pidly increasing, they were induced to direct their attention main- 
ly to this object. 
In the year 1794, having found a ready market for their pro- 
duce the preceding year, the inhabitants made great exertions, 
and a large quantity of produce was raised, which tended much 
to their own comfort, and of those who were moving into the 
country. Many new settlements were begun, mills were being 
built, and roads were being made to connect the different settle- 
ments; all seemed life, activity and bustle. The fatal defeat of 
the western Indians, by General Wayne, on the 20th of August, 
1794, by which their power was completely broken, took place 
upon the river Miami. Among the nations engaged, upon the 
part of the Indians, were a portion of the Senecas. Great slaugh- 
ter was made by the cavalry in pursuit, and multitudes of them 
were cut down by the American sabre. This battle quieted the 
warlike disposition of the Senecas, and in connection with the 
great increase of population upon the part of the whites, removed 
all danger from that source. 
In 1795, owing to the rapidly improving condition of the coun- 
try, the legislature was induced to agree to a division of the coun- 
ty of Ontario; the north half retained the name of Ontario, and 
the south half was named Steuben, after the Baron Steuben, 
a brave, skillful, and valuable officer of the revolution. The town 
of Bath was fixed upon as the seat of justice, where two years be- 
fore, the wild beast of the forest roamed undisturbed, and the echo 
of a human voice was unheard. Roads and mills this season ob- 
tained the particular attention of the inhabitants, and generally 
their comforts were rapidly increasing. In those times we are 
told people knew their neighbors for thirty or forty miles round, 
and that they possessed a warmth and feeling of fellowship which 
we do not find exhibited at the present day; every man left his 
cabin door open, and the stranger walked in and found a hospital- 
ity, of which he w^as well assured the dispensation was not reluc- 
tant. We are further told that their gatherings of the inhabitants 
were numerous, called together to assist each other, upon many 
occasions which the times gave rise to, such as erecting houses, 
barns, mills, &c., and making roads, and as the inhabitants were 
few and far between, it brought distant neighborhoods in contact, 
and created an extended acquaintance, and warmth of feeling to- 
ward each other, which the change of times we are assured has 
diminished. 
West Dresden, Jpril, 1848. 
