"For a portion of this sketch we are indebted to Osceola
Gilbert, of Caton."
"On the formation of Steuben county, March 8, 1796, the
tract of land now constituting the town of Caton and forming the
southwest corner town of the county, was designated as "Township
No. 1, in the First Range" of the townships in said county. It
remained as such until February 11, 1840, at which time it took
the name of "Wormley," agreeable to an act of legislature passed
March 28, 1839. All previous histories have given the date of the
formation of the town of Wormley as March, 1829. During that year
a post-office was established here and called Wormley, and Samuel
Wormley was appoined - (sic. - typed as printed in the Gazetteer)
postmaster. From this sprang the error which has found its way
into all histories of the county which have hitherto been
published. In all official records it was invariably spoken of
as "that part of the town of Painted Post known as township "No.
1" in the first range of townships." It remained, as stated, a
part of Painted Post until February 11, 1840. To settle the
dispute as regards the formation of the town, the writer has not
only hunted up living witnesses of the fact, but has searched the
session laws of the earlier days, and in those of 1839 found the
following enactment, which is inserted as proof of the foregoing
statements:
"An act to erect the town of Wormley in Steuben county,
passed March 28, 1839. The people of the state of New York,
represented in senate and assembly do enact as follows: From and
after the 1st Monday in February, 1840, all that part of the town
of Painted Post, in the county of Steuben, being township "No. 1"
in the first range of townships in said county, shall constitute
a new town of the name of Wormley, and the first town meeting for
the election of town officers shall be held on the 2nd Tuesday of
February next, at the house where Russell Stanton now resides.
" In accordance with the foregoing enactment a meeting was
held, and town officers elected on February 11, 1840. The town of
Wormley was, however, short lived, as we find by the following:
" An act to change the name of the town of Wormley, in the
county of Steuben, passed April 3, 1840. The people of the state
of New York represented in senate and assembly, do enact as
follows: The name of the town of Wormley, in the county of
Steuben, is hereby changed to the name of "Caton" - (derived from
Richard Caton, who, with Edward Carroll of Carrollton, Md., one
of the signers of the declaration of independence, was one of the
original land owners) by which last name it shall hereafter be
known and designated. This act shall take effect immediately.
" The foregoing proofs, which are official, show
conclusively that the town of Wormley had no existence until
February, 1840, and then passed away after a brief period of
about sixty days, all histories to the contrary notwithstanding."
This is a History of Schuyler County found in an attic.
It was from strips cut from the Watkins Democrat newspaper,
and the only date I can find is 1877. There is no name of an
author and nothing to show the order that it appeared. The
Propietor was William H. BALDWIN. I will type it as it is and
show where something has been torn away, as I think it should be
saved. [typed by Helena Howard].
Although Schuyler, as organized in 1854, was formed from
Tompkins, Steuben and Chemung, there was a period not remote in
its history when all its territory was embraced in one county.
And we know of no authentic evidence that indicates that
Montgomery [county] was in any wise discommoded or inconvienced
by the possession of so large and extensive a domain as
Schuyler's present area. The region now known as Schuyler
remained wholly within Montgomery county until 1789, when that
portion afterward belonging to Steuben, was set off with Ontario.
In 1796, Steuben was organized, and fifty-seven years
later, in "fifty-four", helped beget Schuyler. The towns of
Hector, Catharine, Dix and Cayuta remained in Montgomery two
years after the erection of Ontario. And in 1792, Herkimer and
Tioga were also formed: Chemung being taken from Tioga in 1836.
The towns of Dix, Montour, Catharine and Cayuta were therefore
first in the original county of Albany, then Montgomery, then
Tioga, next Chemung and finally in Schuyler.
While Hector commencing in Albany successively belonged
to Montgomery, Herkimer, Onondaga, Cayuta, Seneca and Tompkins.
Although it has been a constituent element of eight
different counties, during the past century, Hector has, by no
means been used up or exhausted by its frequent mutations and
transfers, since it still contains over sixty thousand acres of
land, and nearly or quite one-fourth the population of the county
There appear to have been few or no really permanent
settlements in Schuyler prior to 1790, or thereabouts. After
Sullivan's raid, and the exploring parties who followed in its
wake but little is known of the region until 1790, when George
MILLS, the McCLUREs and two or three other families settled on
the flats near the village of Havana. An apparently unsuccessful
effort to establish a beginning in the woods was made about the
same time, nearer the head of the lake, upon the present site of
Watkins. A year or two later, in 1791-2 the WICKHAMs with one or
two neighbors also moved into Hector. But immigration was
feeble, and the "newcomers" few and far apart, until the years
1797-8, when the advent of pioneers and adventures became more
frequent, and the occupation and development of the country was
actually commenced.
At this time, John DIVEN and Wm. BASKIN with their
families, removed from Pennsylvania, and settled upon the county
line road, about 1 mile west of the head of the lake. Mr.
BASKIN "took up" the premises known as the Alexander ROSS place,
and DIVEN the farm still occupied by members of the family, just
above the county line burying ground. There were several
children born of these families and their names have long been
prominent in local and public matters.
Clark J. BASKIN, Esq., now residing in the town of
Reading and the longest resident practising attorney and
counsellor in the county, is a son of Wm. BASKIN, and if we are
not in error, was the first native born citizen of the town of
Dix who received the advantages of a collegiate course of study.
Rebecca BASKIN, a sister of Clark J., married Jarius
CHAPMAN, who came with his father from Saratoga Co., NY to this
section in 1820, and located near what has long been known as the
Partridge tavern stand in Reading.
John DIVEN had several sons and daughters of whom the
Hon. Wm. DIVEN, late of the town of Reading, and Gen. A. S.
DIVEN, of Elmira, have been the most conspicuous before the
public.
Wm. DIVEN was, for many years, Justice of the Peace in
the town of Reading, and in 1847 he represented the county of
Steuben in the legislature of this State. He was three times
married. His first wife was a CULVER, the second Mrs. Clarissa
HEBARD, and the third a daughter of the late Daniel NORRIS, Esq.,
of Reading. The character and services of Gen. A. S. DIVEN are
too well known by our readers to require mention in these notes.
When Messrs. DIVEN and BASKIN settled in this county,
the surrounding country was of course a wilderness, and for
several years after their arrival their neighbors to the south
and east were George MILLS at what is now Havana, and Judge
CATLIN, who resided near the present village of Odessa. The
MILLS and CATLIN families were also large, and for a long time
the children of these four families constituted the young society
of what would now be considered a pretty widely scattered
neighborhood.
Dr. Madison MILLS, a son of George MILLS, has long held a
distinguished position in the Medical Department of the regular
army. Phineas CATLIN, Esq., a highly respected and wealthy
citizen of Catharine, is a son of Judge CATLIN, and his sister
Mary became the wife of the late Judge John CRAWFORD, of
Crawford's settlement.
The homes of these early prominent settlers served as
stopping and resting places for the tired and exhausted parties
who came on later, and were pushing their way farther on, over
the hills and into the wilderness toward the western boundaries
of the county.
There are numerous citizens still living in the towns of
Dix, Orange and Tyrone, who can recall with grateful recollection
the favors thus afforded them, by those who were already
established in the new country, and who were in a situation that
enabled them to proffer the hospitality calculated to restore and
renew the strength and courage that had been so heavily taxed by
a long and wearisome journey through the woods.
In the southwestern part of the town of Dix there were no
actual residents previous to the year 1818.
HACKETT, HASKINS, PALMER, a man by the name of PERRY, and
Edward LEE first located in the region at and about Beaver Dams.
HASKINS lived on the place now owned by Truman G. BEECHER.
HACKET had a shanty near the foot of the hill, on the farm now
owned by W. C. SAVORY and Frederick PALMER had built a house on
the corner now occupied by Wm. S. BEERS before 1820.
Edward LEE, father of David and Emory LEE, had pitched
his tent at the foot of the high hill, on the southern portion of
what is now SAVORY's place, and Wm. HAINES lived on what has long
been called the COLE farm, about half way back from the north and
south road, towards the foot of the hill, where Elijah PHELPS
located a few years later.
In 1824 Underhill FROST, father of Capt. David FROST, and
George FROST, Esq., of Watkins, removed from Hector, and bought
the premises adjoining and opposite the Beaver Dams cemetery.
The first school house erected in the Post Creek valley
was built in 1826, by the volunteer labor and contributions of
the community, and Miss Amanda HOTCHKISS, sister of the Rev.
Edward HOTCHKISS, taught the first school.
The first grist mill in the town was located in what is
generally known as the VanZANDT's hollow, near its northwest
bodudary(sic), by a Mr. HUBBELL. Daniel KENT soon after bought
it, and kept in operation for several years. In 1831 or 2, Ira
DODGE built the first mill located upon the mill seat now owned
and occupied by John RHODES.
In the portion of the town known as Crawford's
Settlement, or Moreland, John CROUT was the first settler. He
had a lot south of Esq. BARTLETT's residence, given to him by the
agent of the Harper tract as an inducement to settle there, and
for several years was quite alone in the dark and gloomy hemlock
forests.
Judge Crawford, Col. Green BENNETT, the CLEAVLANDs
[CLEVELANDs], Joshua PEARCE, the LOOMIS family and Wilson BAILEY
were all in the neighborhood, however, over fifty years ago, and
may justly be regarded as its pioneers.
Fifty-six years ago Wm. LANE, father of Frederick LANE,
of Beaver Dams, located upon the hillside west of the valley,
and with his brother-in-law, a Mr. EASLING, was for sometime the
only occupants of that vicinity.
At the period of which we write, the territory now
included in the Town of Dix was, of course, known as the town of
Catlin, which extends from the northern boundary of Big Flats to
the head of Seneca Lake. Then Post Creek, Martin's Hill,
Hubbard's Run and Edminister's settlement were in the same town
with the "county line," Watkins and Townsend. John CORNELL, who
after the division of the town became a resident of Dix, was for
fourteen consecutive years Town Clerk of Catlin and of Dix; and
it is no disparagement to his successors in office to remark that
a more beautiful and correct record has never been kept by a
subsequent clerk in that office.
At Townsend, Claudius TOWNSEND, Mr. EVANS, Dods BENSON
and Samuel PRICE were among the earliest settlers. Benj. PRIEST,
Rockwell and Hon. Simeon L. ROOD and Daniel TRACEY, father of
John G., Albert and Ebenezer TRACY came soon after the first\
settlements were made, and their descendents constitute a large
portion of the present population.
BEAVER DAMS
Its location and future prospects ?? Connected with the
Syracuse, Geneva & Corning Railway, &c. &c.
The village of Beaver Dams, is situated in the southwest
section of the town of Dix, Schuyler county, and borders on the
two counties of Chemung and Steuben, from which counties over two-
thirds of Schuyler was taken. It is located on the new Syracuse,
Geneva and Corning Railway, 12 miles north of Corning, 8 south of
Watkins Glen Station, and surrounded by a good and productive
agricultural region which annually sends a large amount of grain,
and other farm products, to market. The locality takes its name
from
TWO BEAVER DAMS
on a small stream, in the vicinity, found, alive with
beaver, by the early settlers, and one of them, or rather a
portion of it, remains to the present day. The place is by no
means a large one, but there is every reason to believe that it
will be much benefitted (if a liberal policy prevails among its
real estate owners) by the new Railway, and will become an
important shipping point, a good business center for quite a
section of the adjacent country, and a growing and prosperous
village.
A coal yard has already been started, a hay press will be
sure to find its way there this fall; and a grain warehouse,
where "Cash For All Kinds of Grain" attracting the farmers for
many miles around, will undoubtedly be erected within a short
time after the opening of the new Road. Those influences, with
cheap lumber and fuel, cannot fail to lead to more business,
building, and a more progressive condition of things, in the near
future.
THE RECORD OF THE PRESENT
Beaver Dams has two churches -- Methodist, Rev. L. R.
CRIPPEN, pastor, and Universalist, the latter having no regular
pastor. It also has a good and nicely located Union School
House, and a good school--the district (No. 11) being made up
from a portion of the town of Dix, in Schuyler Co., and a part of
Catlin in Chemung Co., and it is a singular fact that the pastor
of the M.E. Churches preaches every Sunday in two towns and two
counties, and every other Sunday in three.
F. W. NORTHRUP -- Dry Goods, Groceries, Provisions, &c.
General merchandise. This is the principal store in the place,
and conducted by a live business man, who buys everything that
the people of the surrounding country offer for sale, and pays
cash -- butter being a leading article. The consequence is that
he is rapidly increasing his trade, which this year will amount
to not less than $10,000, whereas three years ago, when he first
took the store, its business amounted to only about $8,000 a
year. Mr. NORTHRUP is just such an enterprising, energetic and
capable merchant as the place needs at the present time. He has
a correct idea of the situation -- is a fair and square dealer,
deservedly popular with his large and increasing number of
patrons, and is therefore succeeding admirably.
Benoni PECK -- Grocery Store. -- (Formerly in the
tailoring business, Justice of Peace, &c.)
H.D. SEAMON, M.D. [SEAMAN?] -- (Postmaster) Physician
and Surgeon. -- The only one at Beaver Dams and has a prosperous
and increasing practice in the village and surrounding country.
Frank SHEWMAN -- Wagon Shop, large dimensions, and does
a good business, Undertaking, &c., &c.
A.P. CROUT -- Boot and Shoe shop.
E. McCLOSKEY -- Blacksmithing Shop. General jobbing,
Carriage ironing, horse shoeing, &c.
Miss A. FROST -- (Formerly of Watkins) Millinery.
Miss Minnie HOOPER -- Millinery,
Present stores old and new will be made during the next few
years. A new road interchange will be calculated to greatly
benefit the locality, is in contemplation and very certain to be
opened, from the Post Creek road (leading from Beaver Dams to
Townsend) through to connect with the road leading to Monterey,
near the residence of Charles TOMPKINS, the distance being less
than a mile. This will form an important connecting link; and
the only wonder is that it has not been opened before.
FROM STEUBEN COUNTY, NYGENWEB BY JUDY ALLEN CWIKLINSKI - PART OF ROOTSWEB