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STEUBEN COUNTY. 621
Steuben co. was all included in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. It was sold by Phelps and
Gorham to Robert Morris, who conveyed it to Sir Wm. Pulteney and others, in London. The terri¬
tory was surveyed into townships and lots by Wm. Bull, for the Pulteney estate, in 1792-93. Sales
were made by townships, at 18 and 20 cts. per acre. Tbe first settlements were made in 1787-90,
by immigrants from Wyoming, Penn., who located upon Chemung River, in the s.e. part of tbe co.
These early settlers were originally from Conn. About 1790, settlements commenced in tbe w.
part, adjoining Yates co. In 1792-93, Capt. Chas. Williamson,1 agent of the Pulteney estate,
commenced a settlement at Bath. He was accompanied by a large number of Scotch and German
immigrants; and under his energetic and liberal policy the settlement progressed with great
rapidity. The greater part of the early settlers came from Penn, hy way of Susquehanna and
Chemung Rivers. Subsequently large numbers came from Eastern New York, New England, and
New Jersey.2 The co. was divided hy the Court of General Sessions, in 1796, into 6 towns, viz.:
Bath, Canisteo, Dansville, Frederickstown, Middletown, and Painted Post, comprising the terri¬
tory now forming 31 towns of this co. and parte of Allegany, Yates, Livingston, and Schuyler
cos. In 1790 the population was 168; in 1800 it was 1,788; and in 1855, 62,965. In extent of
territory and in agricultural wealth it now ranks among the first cos. in the State.3
ADDISON4—was formed, as “ Middletownin March, 1796. Its name was changed April 6,
1808. A part of Troupsburgh was taken off in 1808, Cameron in 1822, a part of Woodhull in
1828, and a part of Rathbone in 1856. It lies upon the s. border of the co„ just e. of the center.
The surface is mostly a hilly upland, broken hy the valley of the Canisteo and its branches. The
principal valley is about 1J mi. wide and is bordered hy steep hillsides 300 to 400 feet high. The
principal streams are Canisteo River, and the Tuscarora, Elks LicS, and Goodhue Creeks. Goodhue
Lake, covering an area of about 500 acres, lies in the N. w. corner of the town. The soil is princi¬
pally a clay loam, with strips of gravel and alluvium upon the streams. Addison, (p. v.,) situated
on Canisteo River, contains 3 churches, a hank, several mills and manufacturing establishments.
Pop. about 1,300. South Addison (p.v.) contains 18 dwellings. Addison Mill is a p.o.
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The Addison Journal wag started in 1851 by R. Denton, and was
removed to Allegany co. in 1852.
The Addison Democrat was commenced by Cbas. L. Phelps in
1853, and was merged in The Voice of the Nation in 1854.
The Addison. Advertiser, established in 1858 hy E.
M. Johnson & Henry Baldwin, is still published.
The Corning and Blossburg Advocate was commenced at Corn¬
ing in 1840 hy Chas. Adams. In 1841 it passed into the
hands of Henry H. Hull, hy whom it was merged, in
1843, in the Steuben Courier, at Bath.
The Corning Journal was commenced hy Thomas Mes¬
senger in May, 1847. In 1851 it passed to A. W. McDow¬
ell and G. W. Pratt, and in 1852 to Dr. Pratt, its pre¬
sent publisher.
The Corning Sun was started in 1853 byM. M. Pomeroy and P.
C. Van Gelder. In 1854 Rev. Ira Brown became the
publisher, and changed its name to \
The Elmira Southern Tier Farmer and Corning Sun, and con¬
tinued it until 1856.
The United States Farmer-was published at Corning in the spring
of 1856.
The Corning Democrat was established in 1857 hy
Chas. T. Huston. It is now published hy Frank B.
Brown.
The Painted Post Gazette was started hy Fairchild in 1846,
and continued 1 year.
The Painted Post Herald was published by Hawley & Bennett
from 1848 to 1850.
The Hornellsville Tribune was commenced in Nov.
1851, by Edwin Hough. It is now published by E.
Hough & Son.
The National American was established at Hornellsville in 1856
by C. M. Harmon. In Nov. 1858, it was sold to Chas.
A. Kinney, and its name changed to the
Canisteo Valley Jonrnal.
A paper was published for a time at Hammondsport, on
Crooked Lake.
1 Capt. Williamson was a Scotchman, and an officer in the
British 24th regiment of infantry during the period of the Revo¬
lution ; hut he did not serve in the war, in consequence of having
been made a prisoner hy the French while crossing the Atlantic. |
2 “ A large proportion of the first settlers upon the Canisteo
were from Penn., and had within them a goodly infusion of that
boisterous spirit and love of rough play for which the free and
manly sons of the backwoods are everywhere famous. On the
Susquehanna frontier, before the Revolution, had arisen an
athletic, scuffling, wrestling race, lovers of hard blows, sharp
shooters, and runners, who delighted in nothing more than in
those ancient' sports by which the backs and limbs of all stout •
hearted youths have been tested since the days of Hercules.
The eating of bears, the drinking of grog, the devouring of ho¬
miny, venison, and all the invigorating diet of the frontiers, the
hewing down of forests, the paddling of canoes, the fighting of
savages, all combined to form a generation of yeomen and
foresters daring, rude, and free. Canisteo was a sprout from
this stout stock, and on the generous river flats flourished with
amazing vigor. Every thing that could eat, drink, and wrestle
was welcome,—Turk or Tuscarora, Anak or Anthropophagus,
Blue Beard or Blunderbore. A ‘hack hold’ with a Ghoul would
not have been declined, nor a drinking match with a Berserkir.
Since the Centaurs never has there been better specimen of a
‘ half horse’ tribe. To many of the settlers in other parts of the
country, who emigrated from the decorous civilization of the
East and South, these boisterous foreigners were objects of asto¬
nishment. When ‘Canesteer’ went abroad, the public soon
found it out. On the Conhocton they were known to some as
the Six Nations, and, to the amusement and wonder of young
Europeans, would sometimes visit at Bath, being of a social
disposition, and sit all day, ‘ singing, telling stories, and drink¬
ing grog, and never get chunk, nayther.’ To the staid and de¬
vout they were Arabs,—cannibals. Intercourse between the
scattered settlements of the colony wras, of course, limited mainly
to visits of necessity; but rumor took the fair fame of Canisteo
in hand, and gave the settlement a notoriety through all the
land which few ‘rising villages,’ even of the present day, enjoy.
It was pretty well understood over all the country that beyond
the mountains of Steuben, in the midst of the most rugged dis¬
trict of the wilderness, lay a corn growing valley, which had
been taken possession of hy some vociferous tribe, whether of
Mamelukes or Tartars no one could precisely say, whose whoop¬
ing and obstreperous laughter was heard far and wide, surprising
the solitudes.”—McMasters’s Hist. Steuben co., pp. 66-7-8.
8 This co. sympathized to some extent in the hostile feeling
that prevailed throughout the Holland Land Company’s Pur¬
chase toward its European proprietors a few years since; hut in
no instance were the processes of the courts seriously impeded
or effectually resisted, and juries have never refused to render
for the proprietors as the facts warranted. There was doubtless
little interest felt hy the foreign owners in this estate beyond
that of realizing the greatest sum possible from their lands; and
the heavy burdens of debts, interest, assignments, and hack pay¬
ments, perhaps not always borne with patience, have been
gradually discharged, until hut a comparatively small amounc
remains.
4 Named in honor of Joseph Addison, the English author.
Called “ Tuscarora” by the early settlers. |
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