THE FRIEND'S SOCIETY
From the History and Directory of Yates County - Volume 1, by Stafford C. Cleveland
Published 1873
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Part 4
Some
Families of the Friend's Society
The
preceding chapter gives a sketch of the Friend's Society, pruned of all
dissenters and seceders. This
does not include all of that notable emigration that came to found the New
Jerusalem, some of whom after arriving here did not remain followers of the
Friend. Most of those original
founders have representatives both in the Society and out of it. It remains to trace them, as families, without regard
to their affiliation with the Society, except as coming with it.
One
of the early patriarchs of the Friend's Society, was Thomas HATHAWAY, who
belonged to the committee of pioneer explorers, and was one of the historical
three, to whom the deed from the State was granted for the 14,040 acres, on
which the Friend's Settlement was first made. He was a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, was an inheritor
of wealth, and had such social connections as led him to the Tory side in the
American Revolution. An elegant
private residence erected by him in New Bedford, before the Revolution, is still
standing in its original style. He
joined the Friend's Society in 1784, and remained a faithful and devoted
member while he lived. His son,
Thomas, then a lad of 15 years, traveled with the Friend on some of her
religious journeys, riding by her side on horseback. In a journal, still in the possession of his descendants, he
recorded proofs of the Friend's industrious study of the Bible, and the interest
and attention she excited on the part of many of the foremost people far and near. When the Friends resolved to form a community by
themselves, Thomas HATHAWAY parted with all his property at New Bedford, and came to the
New Jerusalem, bringing his four children, Thomas, Mary, Elizabeth and Gilbert. His wife had died shortly after the close of the war. He was an active member of the Society, and one of its trusted leaders. He and Benedict ROBINSON purchased, with the advice and concurrence
of the Friend, township number seven in the second range, of Phelps and Gorham. And it appears that his interest in the Gore, so called, as well as
that of James PARKER, soon passed, or principally so, into the hands of William
POTTER. He sold most of his
interest in what is now Jerusalem, to William CARTER for 6,000 pounds, August 4,1793, reserving 5,960 acres, a part of which he had before sold. He commenced the erection of a sawmill on the place now occupied
by Simeon COLE, in 1796, having previously erected a log house. Before his mill was finished he contracted a fever and died in 1798,
at the age of 68 years, and his body was placed in the Friend's vault. As one of the early pillars of the Friend's Society, his name
was always held in reverence by that body of people; and nothing to his reproach
has mingled with the traditions that relate to his name. Thomas and Gilbert, his sons, were active young men in the
pioneer settlement and built the first sail boat on Seneca Lake, a vessel in which
they transported supplies for the new settlement. Thomas also built two flat boats to navigate the Mohawk river,
and invented a rack to suspend between two horses, one in advance of the other,
to transport merchandise along the Indian trail between Utica and Seneca Lake. By this line much of the goods for the primitive settlement was
brought for a few years from Albany.
Thomas HATHAWAY Jr., married Mary BOTSFORD, the daughter of Elnathan BOSTFORD, and resided 59 years on his place in Milo, now Torrey, where for a long period he kept the principal public house in all this region. He was a popular public man, a surveyor and an accurate businessman. Many maps, deeds and contracts exist that were drawn in his beautiful handwriting. He held various military commissions, the last, that of Major, being from Governor TOMPKINS, in 1810. He was also one of the three commissioners, who, by appointment of the Governor, divided the town of Benton, which then included what is now Milo and Torrey, into school districts. His house was the principal place of public resort for a large circuit of country, and town meetings, trainings, and all public gatherings were held there within the recollection of many now living. He died in 1850 at the age of 84 years, and his was the first death under his roof. His wife survived him 13 years, and died in 1866, at the age of 96 years. She came to the Friend's Settlement in 1792, a years later than her father's family, and was married the following year. She was a person of eminent social qualities and remarkable memory.
Their seven children were Lucy, George, Susan, Thomas and
Gilbert (twins), Mary and Caroline. Lucy
married Oliver HARTWELL and had four children, Mary, Susan, Caroline and Thomas. George married Louisa MC MATH and had two children, Anna and William. Susan married Henry A. WISNER, a talented young lawyer and a son
of Polydore B. WISNER, a noted lawyer and legislator of Western New York. Their children were Polydore B, Sarah, Henry A. and Frederick. The father died early, and Mrs. WISNER is still a resident of Penn Yan. Her son, Polydore, married Miss HODGE of Trumansburg, and has
two children. Sarah married first,
Rev. James RICHARDS and for her second husband, M. SHOEMAKER of Jackson, Michigan. A daughter was the fruit o the first marriage and two children of
the subsequent union. Henry
A. WISNER commands the passenger steamer, A. W. Langdon, on Seneca Lake. He married Eliza, daughter of Hiram BELL, of Dundee and
has two children, Walter H. and Harry.
Thomas
HATHAWAY of the third generation, married Mary, the daughter of Samuel HEADLY
and their children were Eliza, Antoinette, Elizabeth, Electa and Emma. Eliza married Ezra LONGCOR; Elizabeth married George DOWNEY and both livein Michigan. Antoinette married James S. TUTTLE and died leaving
one child. Elect married J. SLAWSON. Gilbert married Mary, the daughter of Gen. Timothy HURD. Their children are Henry, Rebecca, Timothy, Ann and Frances. Henry married ____, daughter of Benjamin YOUNGS. The others are mostly out of the county.
Mary
married her cousin, Capt. William HATHAWAY Jr., of New Bedford, and has three
children, William B., Mary and Thomas. She
is a person of superior personal endowments, and has written the family history.
Caroline
married John Tims RAPLEE, and has two daughters, Cornelia and Frances. Cornelia married Otis HAGGERTY and Frances married James C. LANNING. Each has one child.
Gilbert,
the brother of Thomas HATHAWAY Jr., married Mary, the daughter of Richard HURD
of Rock Stream. He was a large landowner, and for many years kept a public house at Rock Stream, formerly know
as Hurd's Corners. It was a
popular resort for a long period, and the Military Musters known as General
Trainings, were sometimes held there. Mr.
HATHAWAY lived to be 87 years old. His
children were Gilbert Jr., Deborah, Bradford G. H., Richard H., Maria and
Charles.
Gilbert
Jr., married a daughter of Allen BOARDMAN and had a farm of 500 acres in
Barrington, when he died. His
children were: Roderick N., Mortimer H., Adelaide, Allen and Edward. Adelaide married Joseph L. BELLIS of Eddytown. All of them are said to be prosperously situated at the
west and their mother, with them.
Deborah
was the first wife of George W. SIMMONS, a noted merchant at Dundee, Rock
Stream, Big Stream, Eddytown and finally at Dresden, where he died. Mr. SIMMONS was a man of great force and energy of character, and did
a large amount of business. His
children are John, Mary E. and George. John
died during the war; Mary E. married William NEWCOMB and lives at Rock Stream;
George A. is the active General Agent of the Habenemann Life Insurance Company.
Bradford
G. H., married Catharine SHEARS, and resides at Rock Stream. He is a remarkably ingenious inventor and patentee
of numerous machines, especially Reapers, Mowers and Threshers. His children are, Mary, Estella M., George M. and Frank. Mary married James ARCHER and lives at Rock Stream. The others are single.
Richard
H., married first, Mary, daughter of John HETFIELD of Rock Stream. He formerly resided at Rock Stream and Penn Yan and now resides in
Torrey on a farm. He has a second
wife, Mary HIGLEY, daughter of the late Elijah HIGLEY, of Penn Yan. The children are, Thomas B., Hannah A., Gertrude and Deborah, by
the first marriage, and Albert W., by the second. Frances B. married Alonzo S. NICHOLS and lives in Michigan. Hannah A. married William BAKER, and lives in Rochester.
Maria
married Abner GILBERT and died early, leaving no children. She was distinguished both for personal beauty and
excellence of heart, and was much lamented.
Charles
married Ann BASIL, lives at Rock Stream and has three children, Charles, Thomas
and Mary.
This
concludes a brief sketch of one of the most famous families of the pioneer
class.
One
of the principal spirits engaged in the great enterprise of founding the new
community of Friends, was James PARKER. He
was a man of great energy of character, religious excitability and liberal
views. He was a native of South
Kingston, Rhode Island. His father
George PARKER, and his mother, Catharine COLE, were from London. James was their seventh child. They
had but one younger, who became Sir Peter PARKER, of the British Navy, and with
the rank of Admiral, commanded the fleet which attacked Charleston without
success, early in the Revolutionary War. While
he was earning his advancement among the English nobility in the service of the
crown, his brother, James PARKER, was Captain of a military company in Rhode
Island, employed in the cause of Colonial Independence. James was a staunch Whig, and although of a Quaker
family, deed the case of the Colonies worth fighting for. He became early and enthusiastically identified with the Society and
the aims of the Universal Friend. Late
in the same year (1787), that the committee of exploration visited this region,
he was at Niagara, negotiating for land with the Canadian branch of the Lessee
Company. He was here again the next
year when the GARTER was sent off to him from the east side of township number
sever, first range, on behalf of the Society; and in 1789 he came on with his
children, his wife, having previously died. The application to the Land office for the territory finally granted
to the Society in the name of PARKER, POTTER and HATHAWAY, was in the name of
James PARKER and his associates, a settlement of Friends.
On
an old map of the Gore, in the writer's possession, James PARKER'S place. (413acres), was a little eastward of SMITH'S.
Mill sand his first residence was in a log house on the road to Norris' Landing. He afterwards erected a fine framed house, near the outlet and close
by the location of the large mill he built about 1816, where he also had a sawmill. The mill was situated
where the Henderson mill is now. Mr. PARKER'S mill was in after years destroyed by afire, and his house is no longer standing. The first Justice of the Peace, in what is now Yates County, was
James PARKER, and probably the first west of Seneca Lake. In 1793, a party of three young couples from Ovid to find a Justice
of the Peace to marry them, and James PARKER was the magistrate that performed
the ceremony. The last of that
wedding party, Abram A. COVERT, was still quite recently among the living. Mr. PARKER held the office of Justice of the Pease by appointment of
the Governor, for several years, and his docket, still in the hands of his
grandson, Dr. Henry BARDEN, shows that suing was a very popular employment of the
people in those days, though it would appear that few of the prosecutions resulted
in trials. The separation of James
PARKER from the Friend's Society, occurred very early in the history of the
new settlement, and whatever its cause, was the root of much hostility and
ill-feelings between the seceding and adhering portions of that community. For about 20 years there after, Mr. PARKER was identified with the
Free Will Baptists, and a popular and influential preacher in that denomination. Upon his revolt from the doctrine of eternal punishment, they
withdrew their fellowship from him, and in his last years he was a member of the
Methodist church. His death
occurred in 1829, at the age of nearly 86 years, and he was buried in the family
burying ground of Otis BARDEN (his son in law), in Benton. (buried in Bellona Cemetery).
James
PARKER was a man of ability and a natural leader among men, and it is much to
his credit, that the embittered controversies and animosities growing out of his
changed attitude toward the Friend, did not chill the warmth of his heart nor
diminish his faith in human nature. He
led an industrious, cheerful, ambitious life to the end. His first wife, and the mother of his children,
was Elizabeth, sister of Ezekiel SHEARMAN, the original explorer of the country,
and father of Bartleson SHEARMAN of Jerusalem. Their seven children were: Henry, Mary, Alice, Oliver, Elizabeth,
Nancy and Catharine. Henry died
young; Mary became the wife of Griffin B. HAZARD; Alice of Thomas PRENTISS;
Elizabeth of Otis BARDEN; Nancy of Levi BENTON Jr.; Catharine of James WHITNEY
of Hopewell. Oliver married his
cousin, Hannah SHEARMAN, and had a large family of children. He resided on the Gore for a time, and afterwards in Barrington,
from whence he removed to Steuben county. The PRENTISS family were connected with James PARKER in the erection
of the large mill before alluded to, which proved a disastrous enterprise,
financially. One of the sons,
Oliver PRENTISS, a member of the celebrated Shaker Society, at Mt. Lebanon, NY,
has recently written a number of interesting sketches of early history in this
county for the Yates County Chronicle. They
afford evidence that the ancestral fire had not expired. James PARKER married for his second wife, Esther WHITNEY, the mother
of Jonas WHITNEY. After her death,
he married a third wife, Miriam, the widow of Jonathan HAZARD, and sister of
Reuben GAGE. She survived him
and drew his Revolutionary pension till her death. Numerous descendants of James PARKER will be noticed in coming
chapters, as connected with the families to which they belong.
The MALIN family were from Philadelphia, and there came here Elijah, Rachel, Margaret, Enoch, Mary, John and Abigail. Of these, Rachel and Margaret became members of the Friend's family, where they lived and died, devoted to the Friend, and faithful, personal and doctrinal adherents. They were women of attractive presence, mild and gentle manners and kind hearts.
Abigail lived unmarried and did not come to Jerusalem till sometime after the decease of the Friend, but afterwards lived there with her sisters, dying at 80 years of age.
Elijah married Deborah, the widow of Benajah BOTSFORD, and youngest sister of the Friend. He was a skillful carpenter and built the Friend's house, which still stands in Torrey. He was for some years an inmate of the Friend's family. After his marriage to Deborah, they had a place on the north border of the Friend's premises in the valley, where they lived to be aged persons. Fifty acres now owned by Moses HARTWELL was willed to him by Deborah, who was his aunt, Moses being a son of Elizabeth HARTWELL, another sister of the Friend.
Enoch married Eliza RICHARDS, the only daughter of Sarah RICHARDS, who eloped from the Friend's house in the hour of meeting, making her exit through a window, to become his wife. Enoch too, was a carpenter and mill builder and erected the first mill in Penn Yan by contract with Lewis BIRDSALL, and for him. At an early period he kept a tavern for a time in a log building about 2 miles north of the HATHAWAY place, in what is now Torrey. He died in Canada long before the lawsuits were ended, which grew out of the sales he and his wife made of the Friend's domain, claiming the right of inheritance from Eliza's mother, who owned the property in trust for the Friend. Eliza also died early in Ohio, and they left two sons, David and Avery.
John MALIN, another brother, came about 1820, and he too was an ingenious worker in wood. He had two sons and two daughters. The sons were George W. and David. George W. was a physician. He married Rosetta HYERS from New Jersey, and practiced medicine in Jerusalem, living several years where William BLANSHARD now resides. David became a distinguished minister of the Presbyterian faith and married a daughter of Judge PORTER of Prattsburg. Both George and David reside now in Philadelphia. The daughters of John were Rebecca and Sarah. Rebecca married William S. HUDSON, lately deceased, of Benton, leaving four children, Susan, Margaret, Mary and William. Sarah married John GARDNER, of Potter, and left one daughter, Sarah, now married to Newton G. GENUNG.
Mary MALIN married a man by the name of HOPKINS, and bore him two children, a daughter Mary and a son James. She married for a second husband, James BEAUMONT and her children by the second marriage, were Joseph H. BEAUMONT of Penn Yan, Sarah, the wife of Elijah SPENCER and George, who lived unmarried. Mary, her daughter, by the first marriage, became the wife of Jacob RENNSELAER, whose daughter, Mary Ann RENNSELAER, married George CLARK.
Elizabeth MALIN married Thomas CLARK; they were not among the first comers, but arrived about 1795. CLARK was a superior mechanic, and the builder of the Friend's house in Jerusalem. He settled at Hopeton, where he purchased a village lot, and moved from there after he finished the Friend's house, about 1815, to Eddytown. They had two daughters, Nancy and Rachael, and one son, Thomas. Nancy married John J. SMITH, a wealthy resident of Hopeton, who moved to Starkey. Rachael married Henry BROWN, a brother of James BROWN Jr., of the Friend's Society. They had a daughter Zeruah and a son Harrison. Zeruah married Anthony RYAL of Torrey. Harrison lives in Jerusalem. Thomas CLARK Jr., married Jane PLUMMER of Starkey and moved West.
A few of the descendants of Mary and Elizabeth MALIN are all that remain of that rather remarkable family inYates County.
Three brothers, Elnathan, Jonathan and Abel BOTSFORD, were among the earliest settlers of the Friend's Society, coming in 1789. Elnathan was a British solider in the French war previous to the Revolution, but was a staunch defender of the Colonial cause when the time of separation from England arrived. He was also a very prominent and influential member of the Society, which sought to build a new social system in the western wilderness. He married Lucy, the sister of Asahel STONE Sr., and had six children Benajah, Sarah, Mary, Lucy, Ruth and Elnathan. He and his brother, Jonathan, had a large farm on the Gore, some part of which is now known as the EMBREE farm. Elnathan Jr., his son, came with the first company of settlers and remained over the first winter, when he went back to New Milford for the rest of the family.
In the spring of 1798, Elnathan Jr., his brother Benajah and his brother in law, Achilles COMSTOCK agreed with Charles WILLIAMSON for a tract of land near the present site of Dundee. They built a log house and chopped a large fallow before the land was surveyed. The surveyors, in running the line of lots, placed the corners of the four lots about the middle of their fallow, two of the lots belonging on one location and two on another. The fire in the meantime broke out in the woods, burned over their fallow and burnt up their house and its contents. They then went to Jerusalem and made that purchase of Enoch and Eliza MALIN, of a strip of land on the north side of the Friend's domain, 100 rods wide and two miles long (400 acres), out of which grew the long and embittered litigation, which has been described in a preceding chapter and which resulted in sustaining their title and confirming that of the Friend to the rest of her lands. Elnathan BOTSFORD and his family were by this unfortunate issue forever alienated from the Friend and sundered from the Society, a loss of grave importance.
Elnathan BOTSFORD Sr., was one of the venerated patriarchs of the land and his name is held in high regard by his descendants. He was hale and cheerful and a great favorite with his grandchildren. His later years were passed in Jerusalem, where he died at the age of 88years, after sustaining a very active and prominent part in the early settlement of this country. His son, Benajah, married Deborah WILKINSON, the youngest sister of the Friend, and died in 1801by falling from a load of hay. His daughter, Sarah, married Achilles COMSTOCK; Mary married Thomas HATHAWAY Jr.; Lucy married Stephen, a brother of the Friend.
Elnathan Jr. married his cousin Aurelia, the daughter of Asahel STONE Sr. His children were Anna, Lucy, Aurelia, Lorenzo and Elnathan. Anna married Daniel SUTTON of Benton; Lucy married Amos GENUNG and has one son, Newton G. (1850census has a son Harrison, aged 13y); Aurelia married James OLNEY and has two children, Lucy Ann and Floyd; Lorenzo married Elizabeth, daughter of Baltus WHEELER, and has two children, Ashael to Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel KEECH and Martha Jane, to Edwin THOMAS, both of Jerusalem.
Elnathan BOTSFORD of the 3rdgeneration, married Mary, the daughter of Baltus WHEELER, and has three sons, Arestes, Miles and Millard.
Ruth, the fourth daughter of Elnathan BOTSFORD Sr., married first, Daniel COMSTOCK, brother of Achilles, and had a son, Daniel, who died in Texas. Her second husband was Rufus GALE, who lived first in Middlesex and afterwards, West.
Jonathan BOTSFORD, of the original family, had two sons and four daughters. Elizabeth, one of the daughters, married Abel HUNT, son of the elder Adam HUNT. Abigail married Jacob NICHOLS; Achsah married John SUPPLEE; Peace married John FITZWATER. Of the sons, Jonathan died young and Elijah married Margaret SCOTT, who still survives at the age of 96 years. Elijahhad two sons, Elijah B. and Samuel; the first was an indefatigable traveler, and died of cholera in 1832 at Plaquemine, on the Mississippi river. Samuel married Hester SPANGLER and has three children. He is a prominent citizen of Jerusalem and was elected County Clerk in1864, and served a term in that office. His mother, almost a centenarian, still recounts the early incidents of the new settlement. She came in 1790 with her mother and sister, Orhpa, and a company which included Adam HUNT, Isaac NICHOLS, Silas SPINK, Seth JONES, Nicholas BRIGGS, John BRIGGS, and Esther BRIGGS. Silas SPINK and Isaac NICHOLS, she says, were expert rowers and it too 20 days to reach Geneva from Schenectady. Mrs. BOTSFORD made her husband a coat the year they were married, carding the wool herself, spinning and weaving the year and coloring the cloth. It was sent to Geneva for fulling. Her sister, Orpha, who was one of the earliest school teachers, married Perley GATES and died at the age of 97 years. Her husband was one of the steadfast FRIENDS, like his father before him, and a very worthy man. He died in 1829,upwards of 60 years.
Abel BOTSFORD had a fine estate next to the Friend's place, in what is now Torrey, where he died in 1817, a man of wealth. The inventory of his personal property, made by George SISOON and James BROWN Jr., was over $3,500 in the moderate valuations of that day. Able BOSTFORD had no living descendants except those of his daughter Mary, who married Robert BUCKLEY, whose son, Samuel Botsford BUCKLEY, is the present State Geologist of Texas.
ASAHEL STONE PG 124 -125
Asahel STONE was from New Milford, in Connecticut. He was married to Anna SHERWOOD in 1780. She died in 1852 at the age of 92, and he in 1833, at the age of 75 years. They early became members of the Friend's Society. He was one who came with the first company of settlers, and helped to clear the ground for the first crop of wheat, and brought his wife and three children in 1789. Mr. STONE was one of the pillars in the Society, firm and steadfast through life, was a speaker in the meetings and a man highly regarded by his fellow men. His children were Aurelia, Mary and Asahel. The youngest was named by the Friend after her father and grandfather. After a few years residence in the Friend's Settlement, Mr. STONE bought a farm in what is now Potter, which he subsequently sold to Abraham LAIN, and since known as the LAIN farm. He then returned to his former home near Seneca Lake, and after a few years, settled on a homestead about a mile south of Yatesville, and east of the Friend's premises, where he died. Mrs. STONE did not adhere to the Friends in her later years.
Aurelia, their eldest daughter, married Elnathan BOTSFORD Jr. They settled on the homestead of his father in Jerusalem, where she still resides, a widow, at the age of 89 years, with her son in law, Amos GENUNG. Her memory is retentive and her mind clear and active. Aside from deafness, she appears to be in full enjoyment of her natural powers, and full of interesting recollections.
Mary married Dr. Nathan L. KIDDER of Benton, and still lives a widow at the age of 87 year, on what is known as the Dr. KIDDER farm, enjoying great physical and mental vigor for her years.
Asahel STONE Jr.,
married Rebecca, the daughter of Southmit (?) GUERNSEY of Gorham. They settled in Italy Hollow, where he built the first saw and gristmill. He was the first Supervisor of Italy. After selling out there, he built mils at Naples, where he pursued anactive business for some years, when he sold to James L. MONIER and returned
to the old homestead in Jerusalem. Finally
he emigrated to Athens, Michigan, where he was an extensive and successful
farmer. He left three daughters, all of whom reside in Michigan. Ann married Alfred HOLCOMB of Naples; Sabra, Benjamin FERRIS of
Naples; Laura, Norton HOBART, a son of Baxter HOBART of Yatesville.
Richard SMITH was a native of Groton, Connecticut. His wife was Elizabeth ALLEN, descended from a family of that name who landed in the May Flower on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Mr. SMITH became early identified with the Friend and the Society, and came with the earliest emigration to the New Jerusalem, leaving his family and possessions to unite his destines with his religious brethren. The first gristmill as well as the first sawmill was in part his property when first built, and his labor and means contributed largely to their erection. A memorandum in the old family Bible read as follows: 4thof July, 1790. I have this day completed my gristmill and have ground ten bushels of Rye. Again, July 5. I have this day ground ten bushels of wheat, n the same having been raised in the immediate neighborhood last years, (1789).
His children were Russell, David and Jonathan, twins, Avery and Sarah. When about 14 years of age, Avery suddenly left the homestead in Connecticut, and unknown to his family, found his way to the home of his father, who, on his application for work, hired him without knowing him to be his own son. He soon influenced the other members of the family to join the father, and after 10 years of separation, they were thenceforward residents here. The oldest son, Russell, died in Connecticut and Jonathan was drowned in a tan vat.
The house
of Friend SMITH, as he was usually called, was a little west of the Mills on the
north side of the stream. Hannah
BALDWIN and others of the Society kept house for him during the early years. A fine property consisting of mills, tannery and real estate,
inherited from wealthy ancestors, was disposed of when they came here. Of the children who came, David died early of what was called
yellow fever, and his is one of the earliest graves in the Penn Yan cemetery. His headstone reads, Born 1778, died 1805.
Avery, who was two years younger, married Lament, the daughter of David WAGENER, some years his junior. He settled at the mill and from that time had chief charge of the property, consisting of the mills and about 200 acres of land adjoining. The father, who remained a steadfast and Faithful Friend to the last, lived in the same log house he first built, nearly forty years. Both parents resided with the son at the time of their decease, his house being on the hill just above and south of the mils. Richard SMITH died in 1836, at the age of 90 years, and his wife in 1838,at the age of 84 years. In 181,Avery SMITH sold the mill property to James LEE, and took up his residence on the opposite farm, known as the Griffin B. HAZARD place. Avery Smith held the rank of Colonel in the War of 1812, and served with the 103rd Regiment, under General Hugh BRADY, through the war. Joshua LEE was Surgeon of this regiment and Jeremiah B. ANDREWS, an attendant. In 1826, Avery SMITH represented Yates county in the Assembly, and he was always a prominent and influential citizen. His family numbered twelve children.
Elizabeth A. became the wife of William ARMSTRONG. She is now a widow at her home in the town of Seneca, Ontario county, and has three children, Berian, Rebecca and William. David W. married Sarah A., the daughter of George V. HAZARD of Milo, and is a farmer in Jerusalem. His children are Elizabeth, Frank, Sarah, Avery and Anna.
Richard M. is a well known citizen of Penn Yan, and has been employed as a subordinate and principal in the United States Indian Agency in Michigan for nearly 20 years, and until a recent date, where his work has greatly tended to the protection and regeneration of the natives. Mr. SMITH married Elizabeth A. BEACH of New Windsor, Orange county, and settled in Penn Yan, where they have since resided. Their children are Helen Augusta, the wife of Charles STROWBRIDGE and Mary CASTNER.
Rebecca W. married Zenas P. WISE of Benton, where she died, leaving one daughter, since dead. Jackson J. married and resides in Minnesota, near St. Anthony. Sarah L. married Thomas BRIGGS of Milo and died, leaving no children. Avery A. is a resident of Eugene City, Oregon, where he married. George S. emigrate to Texas, Rachel J. married Mr. DUNN of Dundee, and went to Kansas. Charles T. also married and went to Kansas.
Sarah, the only daughter
of Richard SMITH the elder, was born January 15, 1780; married in 1803, James
LEE, the brother of Dr. Joshua LEE. She
became the mother of a large family and died in 1858, at the age of 77 years.
Benjamin BROWN Sr., came from New London, Connecticut with the earliest settlers and with a large family and located just eastward of the Friend's house in the original settlement, where he lived and died very aged before the close of the last century. Among his brothers were James, Micajah, Elijah and Daniel, all early settlers. Among his children were Benjamin, Sarah, Catharine, Desiah and Frances. The father was one of the best of men, and was held in high estimation. He was one of the devout and abiding Friends.
Benjamin Jr. married Penelope, the daughter of Judge William POTTER. They had one child, Penelope, who became the wife of Israel ARNOLD.
Sarah became the wife of Arnold POTTER, the most distinguished of William POTTER'S sons. She and her husband were both early disciples of the Friend, and belonged to her retinue on her first visit to Philadelphia. The wife remained a faithful and firm adherent while she lived, and her husband fell off the early schism in the new settlement.
Catharine was the wife of David FISH, the Nimrod of the New Jerusalem. He was celebrated for hunting and fishing and it is said built upwards of 30 huts in the woods, and about the lake and streams of the new settlement, for his convenience in the pursuits, which absorbed his principal attention. He had followed the life of a sailor and has been termed Commodore FISH. The children of his family were Daniel, David and Charlotte. It is said some of their descendants still live in Torrey.
Desiah was the wife of Rows PERRY in Middlesex.
Frances married her cousin, Joshua BROWN of Potter, a brother of James BROWN Jr.,
The children of James BROWN Sr., were Joshua and Jesse (twins), James Jr., George and Henry. Jesse married a daughter of David CULBER of Culverstown, at the head of Seneca Lake, and lived in Benton where he has descendants.
Henry married Rachel CLARK, a niece of Rachel MALIN, and is now an aged resident of Benton. His second wife was Elizabeth CARROL. Of his first wife's children, Zeruah married Anthony RYAL and had four children, Lucy A., Rachel, Mary and John H. Lucy A. married William KRESS and Rachel married Starkey KRESS. Both live in Reading. John H. is married and lives in Torrey.
Henry H., the son of Henry BROWN, married Amanda HAZELTON, and they reside in Jerusalem. They have four children, Maria, Henry, Mary and Oliver. Henry H. had a second wife. His daughter Mary married Peter BLAKESLY.
James BROWN Jr., the Friend, was born in Connecticut in 1776. From about 1810 till long after the decease of the Friend, he was superintendent of the estate and a member of the household. His oldest daughter, Margaret, is the wife of Charles L. TOWNSEND of Jerusalem.
George, the brother of James BROWN Jr., married Martha LUTHER, and settled on the homestead in Benton, whereshe died, leaving two children, Cephas and Anna. He then married Sarah, the sister of Dr. Nathan KIDDER of Benton, anddied leaving three children by the second marriage, Dennis, Anna and Martha. Cephas and Darius emigrated to Coldwater, Michigan.
Samuel BARNES was of Puritan descent, the third in the genealogical lines of the same name, and a Connecticut farmer when he and his family united with the Friend's Society. His wife was Abigail DAINS, sister of the DAINS brothers of the Friend's Society. Their eldest son, Parmelee, came to the New Jerusalem with the settlers in 1789, and Elizur, the next son, in 1791. The parents came with the remaining children, Julius, Samuel and Henry, in March 1793, with a sleigh and horses, driven by Daniel, a son of Eleazer INGHRAHAM, by was of Albany, a journey of 16 days. They contracted for land of Charles WILLIAMSON, near Himrods, where they cleared 22acres, and remained till 1800, when they sold out and removed to Jerusalem. They took up a home in what was then a dense wilderness, on the AsaRICHARD'S lot, where the wild animals made it very difficult for years to rear those of the domestic species. After clearing a little space, they moved on a homestead near by of 21 acres, deeded to his parents by the elder son, Parmalee BARNES. Here the father died in 1809 at the age of 86 years. His wife, a most estimable matron, died in 1842, at the age of 92 years.
Parmalee BARNES died in 1820without children. His widow married Peter KINNEY of Benton, whose son, Jonathan KINNEY married Almira, a daughter of Samuel BARNES Jr.
Elizur BARNES married Experience, a daughter of Nathaniel INGRAHAM and lived in Jerusalem, west of Larzelere's Hollow, where he died. His widow still survives at the age of 86 years. Their children were Huldah, Amy, Mary and Ira. Huldah became the second wife of Jesse DAVIS; Amy married Cornelius VANSCOY. The others died unmarried.
Julius BARNES became the third husband of Mrs. Keturah UPDEGROVE and had two children, Alvira and Samuel. Alvira was a school teacher nearly forty years ago in Jerusalem and Italy, and still lives, unmarried. Samuel married Saloma TORRANCE and moved to Wisconsin. Two of his sons were killed in battles of the Rebellion, fighting for the Union.
Samuel BARNES Jr., married Rachel MEEK, sister of Charles MEEK, and lived and died on a farm of 110 acres, a mile west of Larzelere's in Jerusalem, bought of Jacob WAGENER. His children were Abigail, James, Almira, Mary Ann, George, Daniel D. and Rosetta. Abigail married first, Lewis FINCH, and still lives in Pultney with John WATEROUS, her second husband. James married Submit ROGERS and lives in Allegany county. Almria is the widow of Jonathan KINNEY, before mentioned, and has five children, Elizabeth, Samuel, James, Henry and Melancthon KINNEY. Of these, Elizabeth is the wife of John H. ROBSON of Geneva; Jane of George HUIE of Seneca, and Charles married Eliza MC GONEGAL of Geneva. Mary Ann, the fourth child of Samuel BARNES, married Peter FINGER, a farmer of Jerusalem and has one son and one daughter. George and Samuel are unmarried and David D. married Margaret, daughter of John G. LOWN of Jerusalem and lives in southwest Benton. They have two children. Rosetta married Andrew FINGER of Benton, and they have three children. Mary Ann, Almira and Rosetta have been school teachers of Yates county.
Henry BARNES, the youngest
of the original family, is now 80 years old. He
was born and reared in the midst of the Friend's Society, and has been true to
his early education. For 68 years,
he has led a religious life in conformity to the doctrine and precepts of the
Friend, with whom he was a favorite from a child. He was a member of the Friend's household for many years, and
regarded that place as his home, until counsels not congenial to his view, obtained
an influence there. In early life
he was a farmer and a cooper. In 1814 he settled with Abraham DOX, at Hopeton, for 1,600 flour barrels he had made
for him. He commenced school
teaching in 1823, almost wholly self-prepared, having enjoyed but 15 weeks schooling
in his childhood. He proved a very
competent and popular teacher and taught thirty terms of school in Jerusalem,
Milo, Potter, Benton and Italy, the last one a very successful term in Italy, at
the age of 76 years. Twelve year
she served as Inspector of Schools in Jerusalem, and once as Town Superintendent
in Wheeler, where he resided 12 years. He
was accurate, painstaking and conscientious in all his labors. He was married at the age of 46 years, to Sarah WHITNEY, sister of
Dr. David WHITNEY of Jerusalem, and after her decease, to Elizabeth MILLS, the
widow of David MILLS of Benton, who also died several years ago, leaving him no
children. He has led a devout,
upright and industrious life, and now in his 81st year, is a subject
of remarkable interest as the last male survivor of the remarkable Society of
the Public Universal Friends, and the only one now competent to give a clear
account of its history from personal experience and observation. His excellent memory and conscientious statements, have added greatly
in furnishing information for this work.
Jonathan, Castle, Jesse, Ephraim and Abigail DAINS were a family of Connecticut birth, who came to the New Jerusalem with the earliest pioneers and all but Ephraim were at first of the Friend's Society. Their father was Henry DAINS, who married Margaret BATES of Rhode Island and this matron lived to be 100 years old. Abigail, her daughter, became the wife of Samuel BARNS Sr., of the Friend's Society and the mother of the BARNES family.
Jonathan DAINS married Mary GREEN of Connecticut, and had six children, Margaret, Francis, Lavina, Stephen, Jonathan and Mary. The father, who was an industrious man and useful citizen, died in Jerusalem, in the 93rd year of his age, a firm adherent of the Friend to the last. The oldest daughter, Margaret, married John WESTON of Connecticut and lived to be 86 years old. Francis was never married. Lavina lived unmarried and was an exemplary member of the Friend's family. She died in 1850 at the age of 86 years. Stephen, after the loss of his first wife, who was the mother of a daughter, Eliza, that died a young woman, married Rachel FITZWATER. They had several children and removed to Michigan where he died advanced in years.
George DAINS of Jerusalem, is a son of Stephen DAINS. George married Mary HOPKINS, and for his second wife, Elizabeth HOPKINS, and has four children. Mary DAINS, the youngest of the children of Jonathan DAINS Sr., married Ephraim KINNEY and settled in Potter, afterwards going west.
Jonathan DAINS Jr., married Nancy MC GRAW, and had eight children, John, Jesse, Francis, Cyrus, Orilla, Perry, Richard and Ezra. Of these, John married Catharine SAUNDERS of Jerusalem, and has two sons and one daughter. Jesse, who also resided in Jerusalem, married Chloe STARK and died leaving two daughters. Francis, who is a well know shoemaker in Penn Yan, married Mary Jane LEWIS, daughter of George LEWIS who established the Seneca Patriot, a newspaper at Ovid, in 1815,and has two children, Henry Clay and Libbie. Henry Clay is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Artillery service. Libbie is the wife of Francis M. GIFFORD. Cyrus DAINS married Jane STOUT of Potter, is a merchant at Potter Center, and has one child, a daughter. Orilla married Joseph BARRETT of Jerusalem, and has three children, one of whom, George, perished in the rebel prison at Andersonville. Perry DAINS is a thrifty gardener of Penn Yan. He married Ann SHERRATT and has no children. Richard is another shoemaker of Penn Yan. He married Sarah TUCKER and has one daughter. Ezra is also married and resides in Michigan.
Castle DAINS married Joanna BARMAN in the state of Connecticut. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and in the census of 1840 was returned as 91 years old. He died three years later, at the age of 94 years. He was a carpenter and made ox yokes and plows. He and his brother, Jonathan, were both very ingenious mechanics, the latter being a tanner; and they were both noted cattle and horse doctors. Castle was also famous for his efficiency in curing the bites of rattlesnakes, which he did by means of some plant known to him which grew in the woods. His children were, Salmon, Elizabeth, Abel, Saloma and Simeon. Salmon left home about the age of 25, and it was reported that he was seized in New York by the Press Gang and forced on board a British Man of War. He was not afterwards heard from. Elizabeth married Benjamin DURHAM, celebrated as an excellent millwright of the early days. Their descendants are numerous in Jerusalem. Abel DAINS married Mrs. Clarissa BAKER, who had been Clarissa BELLONGE, and had four sons, not known to the writer. Saloma married William TORRANCE. They have several children and live in Steuben county. Simeon married Kitty BELLONGE, and lives, advanced in years, at Branchport. He has had a large family, few of whom are known to reside in Yates county. One of his sons died from service in the war of the rebellion. A daughter, Eliza, married first, Chester LAMB, and for a second husband, James PARIS, lately deceased.
Jesse DAINS married Chloe THOMPSON of Connecticut. He was a shoemaker and a farmer and lived in Milo. For many years he did the shoemaking for the Friend's family, and was a superior workman. He and his family did not adhere to the Friend's Society after the divisions occurred in the Friend's settlement. His children were David, Jesse, Orilla, Therza and Eli.
David married Sarah, a sister of Aaron REMER, and his children were Mahala, Rebecca, Thompson, Richmond, Abram R., Chloe, Jane, Esther and Bryant. Mahala married Silas RIDER. Rebecca married Arnold RAPLEE, near Himrods, and has two daughters living, Susan and Sarah. Thompson married Susan PETERS and lives in New Jersey. Richmond married Polly BURTCH, resides in Torrey, and has four children, Antoinette, Clarissa, Francis and Clark. Abram R. married Matilda TAYLOR, resides in Torrey and has four daughters. Chloe married Myron H. DURHAM of Jerusalem. Jane married Andrew HEWITT and lives west with two children. Esther died single. Byrant was a solder in the army of the Union during the late war, and died in the service.
Jesse DAINS Jr., married Mary, a sister of George and Benjamin YOUNGS, and had the following children: Avery, Josephus, Nancy, George, Aaron, Mary and Fanny. Avery married and took up his residence west, as did Josephus. Nancy married Alexander HODGE, and lives in Italy Hollow. George married Eliza, daughter of Samuel HEADLY. Mary is the widow of the late Stephen H. CLEVELAND of Milo. Fanny died single. Orilla married Ezra RAPLEE, lives at Himrods and has five children, all of whom are married. Therza died young. Eli resides in Pennsylvania. Aaron married Achsa, a sister of Timothy SUPPLEE, resides at Himrods and has a family of children.
Ephraim DAINS was not of the Friend's Society. He married Jane STEDMAN and was a farmer and hunter. He was celebrated for deer and wolf hunting and among his children were, Henry, Ira, Samuel, Orpha and others. The whole family emigrated west, many years ago.
This is a brief sketch of one of the most extensive of the early families, and an important one in the earlyhistory of the country.
Elizabeth LUTHER came from Rhode Island with the first settlers of the New Jerusalem, accompanied by her children, Sheffield, Reuben, Beloved, Elisha, Jonathan, Mary, Bethany and Martha. She was a woman of excellent character, a devoted Friend and a good mother. The family lived at first in the Friend's Settlement and afterwards in Jerusalem. Sheffield married and lived on the Gore, where he died an aged and much respected man. Reuben was never married but lived with his mother and died in advanced age, a highly respected Friend. Beloved was another man of sterling character and a firm Friend. He married Sarah, a daughter of Lydia WOOD. Their children were Peleg, Stephen and Lydia. Of them, Stephen and Lydia died before reaching middle life; and of Peleg, little is known.
Elisha LUTHER married first, Elizabeth, a daughter of Jedediah HOLMES, and they had two children, a son and a daughter. The daughter married Aaron VAN MARTER and lives in Hector, Schuyler county. For his second wife, Elisha married Sidna BARRETT, a widow and the mother of Azor BARRETT of Jerusalem. By this marriage there were five children, David, Deborah, Mary, John and Elisha Jr. David married Eliza SMALLEY and moved to Michigan. Deborah became the wife of Jeremiah S. BURTCH of Jerusalem; and Mary, the wife of Mc Dowell BOYD of Jerusalem, and died in 1867. She was the mother of five sons and two daughters.
John LUTHER married Mary, the daughter of George BRIGGS of Potter, and lives in Jerusalem on his father's homestead. They have two children, Elisha and Sarah. Elisha married a Miss ELVOY and lives in Chicago with three children. Sarah is the wife of Charles WATEROUS and resides in Jerusalem.
Jonathan LUTHER went to the west many years ago, and Mary married Reuben HUDSON; was a firm Friend and died on her homestead in Jerusalem. Bethany was the wife of George SISSON, a very worthy woman and the mother of a large family. Martha married George, the brother of James BROWN Jr., of the Friend's Society, and had two children, Cephas, a wagon maker, and a very lovely daughter, who died at the age of 10 years.
The original LUTHER
family, except Jonathan, were all members of the Friend's Society and
exemplary people, whose lives were a credit to their religious pretensions.
Two
brothers, Elisha and Eleazer INGRAHAM, and their cousin, Nathaniel, were among
the early settlers of the Friend's Society. They were all married and had families. And lived in the Friend's
settlement. Elisha's children
were Jerusha, Asa and Lament. The
parents died when Lament was an infant, and she was reared in the family of
Asahel STONE Sr. She married
first, William PARCE, and after his death, Daniel SUTTON. They both live now in Jerusalem at an advanced age. Asa lived with
the Friend till he grew up, learned the shoemaker's trade and moved to Canada.
Eleazer
INGRAHAM'S children were Daniel, Philo, Eleazer Jr., John, Abigail, Lydia,
Rachel, Lament and Patience. Daniel
mobbed the BARNES family to the Friend's settlement, but never came here to
live. Philo married early and went
to the Wabash region. Eleazer Jr.,
married Dorcas GARDNER, sister of George and Abner, of the original family, and
settled in Pultney, where they reared a large family. He died at a very great age. One
of his daughters married Rowland CHAMPLIN Jr., and reared a large family in
Jerusalem. Another daughter of
Eleazer Jr. married John SISSON, a grandson of George SISSON. They live now at Branchport.
John
married Anna UPDEGROVE, sister to the wife of Jonathan DAVIS. They had one son who married Esther BOYD, and reared
a family, some of whom now live in Jerusalem. Among the names of John's children are Elisha, Mary Ann,
Semantha, Rachel and Eleanor. Three of
the daughters are school teachers.
Rachel
still lives, one of the last of the Friends, at the age of 88 years.
Lament
married Samuel DAVIS, son of Malachi DAVIS.
Patience
married Asa BROWN, son of Micajah BROWN.
Nathaniel
INGRAHAM lived at first in the Friend's Settlement, and afterwards on West
Hill in Jerusalem. His children
were Mary, Huldah, Chloe, Nathaniel, Solomon, David and Experience. The descendants are mostly out of the county. The father was a good man and a staunch Friend.
His
daughter, Experience, became the wife of Elizur BARNES and still survives, a
widow, at the age of 86 years, one of the three remaining members of the Friend's Society.
Among
the early Friends, were two or three families of the name GUERNSEY, of whom
little trace seems left. Daniel
GUERNSEY was an important surveyor, and surveyed township number sever, second
range, into lots and made the first map of that township for Benedict ROBINSON
and Thomas HATHAWAY. Daniel
GUERNSEY went west in 1812. Southmit
GUERNSEY settled near Rushville, and had a son whom he named Raphael; and
Raphael had a son Elijah, who married a daughter of Elijah HARTWELL. William
GUERNSEY settled in Potter at an early day. A daughter of his was an early school teacher. Little more is now known of the GURENSEYS.
Jedediah
HOLMES was an important member of the first settlement and a man of some
property. His wife was the first
that died, (Abigail) and hers was the first grave in the City Hill cemetery. They had no board of which to make a coffin, and were obliged to
hollow out a log for that use, first splitting off a slab, which was afterwards laid
on for the coffin lid. Elizabeth, the daughter of Jedediah HOLMES, was the
first wife of Elisha LUTHER. Mary,
another daughter, is named among the devoted sisterhood.
William ROBINSON was one of the Friends who came from Pennsylvania. At first he lived at John SUPPLEE'S and made the first Fanning Mill in the Friend's Settlement, which was consequently the first in the country. He was always a single man; lived afterwards with William DAVIS in Jerusalem, and was the first person buried in the Friend's burying ground. That burial occurred in 1806. The next, was that of Mary, the wife of Jonathan DAINS Sr.
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