Yates County, New York

Businesses in the Town of Barrington

 

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Businesses in Barrington    

From the History of Yates County, NY    

published 1892, by L.C. Aldrich     pg 449 - 450 

Crystal Springs � In the spring of 1865, when the country was crazy with oil speculations, a deer-lick on lot 50 in Barrington affording rich appearances of this sort, a company was formed in the vicinity to bore for oil.  At a depth of forty-three feet the water came up so abundantly it was difficult to go father.  This was soon found to have medicinal virtues for which it has acquired great fame.  Erasmus WRIGHT and Benson SMITH, becoming proprietors of the location, erected in 1867 a house of four stories, 100 feet long and 42 wide, with a two-story wing 70 by 32 feet.  The place has become a very popular resort and very many people who have tested the virtues of the water have believe themselves much benefited by its use.  The flow of water is sufficient to fill a two-inch tube constantly.  A house was opened at the spring by Sylvester BOWERS in 1866, before the larger structure was built.  Shortly after this mammoth hotel had become popular it was completely destroyed by fire, but the waters of this immense spring had become so popular, building lots had been laid out and some of them had been built upon.  A post-office had been located, a mail route established, a store built and in operation; real estate began to boom, consequently the hotel was rebuilt, but it had scarcely been finished before it met a similar fate and was completely destroyed.  Although this looked gloomy and discouraging, the spring had built up quite a little village, and the call for another hotel, which, in the course of a year, Mr. SMITH had well nigh built.  A noted M.D. DEBORAH built a large sanitarium with all modern improvements, hot and cold baths, steam baths, etc., which was attached to the springs.  This called a number form abroad for treatment.   A park was laid out and wealthy men from a distance built cottages for summer resorts.  Here the genial Fred FURNACE held forth his private grounds, cottage and curiosities.  A pavilion was built and things looked booming, when for a third time the hotel was destroyed by fire.  This finished up the old proprietor and the property went into the hands of a Mr. RATHBUN, of Elmira, who enlarged the sanitarium, remodeled it, converted it into a hotel, and it was thrown open again to the public under the supervision of Colonel BAKER for two seasons; this last season of 1891 it flourished under the management of E. GULICK, of Starkey. 

In the summer of 1891 a church building was erected at the Springs and dedicated in September of the same year,, said church to be a union church for the use of those of all or of no denomination that chose to repair there for worship Sunday afternoon.  The trustees were elected from different denominations, the pulpit to be supplied from the Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches of Dundee. 

Post offices, Manufactures, etc -  There are three post offices in this town.  Barrington post office, situated at Warsaw; Crystal Springs at the springs, and Crosby at Crosby Landing, on the shore of Keuka Lake.  Crosby village is situated on the east shore of Keuka Lake, in Barrington.  It has its store, church, post office and school house, two casket factories, and last but not least, a cluster of splendid houses, backed on the east by the beautiful vine-clad hills and faces on the west by the silvery waters of lake Keuka, - the dreamland of the soul through the heated season of summer.  It is in the midst of the grape-growing region, and at this landing hundreds of tons of grapes and shipped annually.  Some of the principal grape growers in the town are Joseph CROSBY, J. EAGLESTON, I. CROSBY, C. PLASTED, Estate G. BULLOCK, H. BULLOCK, E. EDWARDS, A. AMADON, S. LAMONT, George FENTON, and hundreds of others.  The basket factories deserve more than a passing notice.  The proprietor of one is Hermon BULLOCK, that of the other, George FENTON.  Ten years ago the baskets were bunched up in dozens and sold by the dozen � a small pony business.  But the demand has grown so rapidly that the mills have been furnished with all modern machinery for manufacturing baskets, and the largest logs are sawed and sliced out and turned until ready for the baskets; and this year the output of baskets from both factories is 1,500,000, giving employment to twenty-five or thirty men and to fifty or sixty girls.  The Bullock mills do the sawing and cutting for the  Mc Math and Morgan factories of Penn Yan.  The Fenton mills furnish the Niagara Grape Company with 100,000 baskets annually.  Peaches, currants and raspberries are raised to quite an extent, and other small fruit, so that evaporators may be counted by the dozen all over the town.  Among the largest raspberry growers of the town at present are Delmer KNAPP and D. B. CORNELL.  The largest apple orchard is owned by D. B. CORNELL, consisting of fifteen acres and twenty varieties.  There are six steamboat landings in Barrington: Fenton, North and South Crosby, J. Eagleston, Hawk and S. Eagleston.

 

The Crystal Springs

History & Directory of Yates Co., Vol 1, 

Pub 1873, by Stafford C. Cleveland, Pg 166 � 167 

In the spring of 1865, when the country was crazy with oil speculation, indications of petroleum were believed to exist wherever gases of an inflammable character escaped from the earth.   A �deer lick� on lot 50 in Barrington affording rice appearances of this sort, a company was formed in the vicinity to bore for oil.  At a depth of forty-three feet, the water came up so abundantly it was difficult to go farther.  This was soon found to have medicinal virtues, for which it has acquired a great fame.  Erastus WRIGHT and Benson SMITH, becoming proprietors of the location, erected, in 1867, a house of four stories, one hundred feet long, and fort-two wife, with a two story wing seventy by thirty-two feet.  The place has become a very popular resort, and very many people who have tested the virtues of the water have believed themselves much benefited by its use.  The flow of water is sufficient to fill a two inch tub constantly.  A house was opened at the Spring by Sylvester BOWERS in 1866, before the larger structure was built.  

No account has been furnished the writer of more than five distilleries that ever existed in Barrington.  One of them was on the Gore operated by John C. BODINE; another by John CARR near his grist mill. 

Lorenzo D. SNOOK, of Barrington, a young man of twenty-four, a son of Oliver SNOOK, and grandson of Locowick DISBROW, is an industrious and prolific writer for agricultural publications, a regular contributor to the Rural New Yorker and other papers.  He adds interest and value to his articles in the use of his pencil by giving ingenious and tasteful illustrations of his subjects.  He has received many commendations from the agricultural papers for his contributions. 

Joshua RAPLEE is one of the largest land owners of Barrington, and a farmer who has taken much interest in cultivation of stock especially sheep and horses of the best quality. 

Near the Lake within the past few years grapes have been extensively planted with good success.  The leading cultivators are Joseph F. CROSBY, Amos EGLESTON, Isaac CROSBY, Alanson CROSBY, Selah CROSBY, George W. FINTON, Arthur O. KANE and Ogden WORTMAN.  Deglazing J. SUNDERLIN and his sons have also been very successful cultivators of grapes on their premises near the Crystal Spring. 

Chubb Hollow, a valley which forms the bed of the north branch of Big Stream, was so named for Philo CHUBB, who was for many years a resident in that locality.  He is no longer a citizen of the town. 

Barrington has now but two churches, one Baptist and one Methodist. 

William OVENSHIRE states that Barrington was so named, by residents of the town who came from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in honor of the place from which they emigrated. 

 

Organization of the Town and Town Officers

History & Directory of Yates Co., Vol 1 

Pub 1873, by Stafford C. Cleveland, Pg 164 � 166 

When Steuben county was organized, all that now forms the towns of Tyrone, Wayne, Reading, Starkey and Barrington, was included in the town of Fredrickton, so named in honor of Frederick BARTLES, a German, who built a mill at the outlet of Mud Lake in 1793, under the patronage of Charles WILLIAMSON.

Afterwards, Reading was cut off, and the town of Wayne organized, including what is now Barrington.  Finally in 1822 the town of Barrington was created with its present boundaries and in 1826 it was added with Starkey to Yates county.  The first town meeting was held February 24th, 1823, at the house of Daniel RAPALEE (the old Teeples place), Richard EDDY was elected Supervisor; Daniel RAPALEE, Town Clerk; Joseph MC CAIN, Collector; James A. SWARTHOUT, Jeremiah SHAW, and Lodowick DISBROW, Commissioners of Highways; Ephraim BENNETT, Matthew MC DOWELL and Robert ARMSTRONG, Commissioners of Schools; Ira CHURCH, Matthew KNAPP and Tippett SUNDERLIN, Assessors; Ezekiel BLUE and Victor PUTNAM, Overseers of the Poor; Joseph MC CAIN, Elijah BAKER and Peter PUTNAM Jr., Constables; Dennis SUNDERLIN, Richard EDDY and Ira SUNDERLIN, Inspectors of Common Schools; Daniel RAPALEE, Pound Master.  The subsequent Supervisors have been: 

1824 � 1827 Alexander PATTEN

1828   Ephraim BENNETT

1829   Ahser SPICER

1830 -1831 James A. SWARTHOUT

1832 � 1833 Stephen ROBINSON

1834 � 1835 Ezekiel BLUE

1836 � 1837 John SPICER

1838 � 1839 Levi KNOX

1840 � 1842 Lodowick DISBROW

1843 � 1844 George W. WOLCOTT

1845            Martin HOLMES

1846 � 1847 John WRIGHT

1848 � 1849 Archibald CAMPBELL

1850            Chauncey BOYCE

1851 � 1852 Daniel DISBROW

1853 William KINNE

1854 Martin HOLMES

1855 Samuel V. MILLER

1856 Daniel DISBROW

1857 Joseph CROSBY

1858 Samuel WILLIAMS

1859 George N. WILSON

1860 Abel WARD

1861 Peter H. CROSBY

1862 Jonathan TAYLOR

1863 � 1864 Asa P. FISH

1865 � 1866 Delazon J. SUNDERIN

1867 Benson SMITH

1868 Jesse C. KNAPP

1869 Sackett B. WIXSON 

The town meetings ere held for many years at the Daniel RAPALEE tavern, afterwards kept by Levi KNOX, and finally by James KETCHAM, until Warsaw became a center of sufficient importance to eclipse this ancient stand.  The place is now owned by Lewis MC CONNELL

Amos C. WEST, it is said, was the first school teacher in Barrington and taught in 1810, a school not far from the Teeples neighborhood.  WEST afterwards kept a tavern at the foot of Keuka Lake.  James A. JACKSON, a stammering man, and the father of Gen. Daniel JACKSON, now of Watkins, taught a term quite early, attended by children from Barrington, in a log school house, on Jonathan BAILEY�s old place in Milo.  Ezra WINSHIP, who lived in Jerusalem, taught in 1815, near the Teeple�s tavern, called the Knapp district.  Richard EDDY, Enoch DE CAMP, Selah CROSBY, Ira SUNDERLIN, elder Jonathan KETCHUM, James L. SEELEY, George W. SIMMONS, Sarah LOUNSBURY, Semantha ROBINSON, Daniel BATEMAN, Mr. VAN CROFT and Lizzie STEWART were also early teachers in that town. 

The population of Barrington decreased four hundred in the twenty- five years including between 1840 and 1865, and in 1825 it was larger by 630 than in 1865.  From 1840 to 1850. the decrease was 338. 

 

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