RESOURCES

HISTORY OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY OF AMERICA

Volume 2

By James Elliott Defebaugh (editor of the American Lumberman)

Chicago, The American Lumberman: 1907.

Steuben County

New York

PAGES 310-311

First Settlement.	First Sawmill.	Built by.	Town.	County.
1788	1793	Ichabod Patterson	Corning	Steuben
1790	1793	Eleazer Lindley	Lindley	Steuben
1791	1793	George Goodhue	Addison	Steuben
1793	1793	Chas. Williamson	Bath	Steuben
1792	1795	George Hornell	Hornellsville	Steuben
1793	1795	Frederick Bartles	Bradford	Steuben
1793	1795	John Shether	Urbana	Steuben

PAGES 313-314

Among the earliest of the steam mills was that built in 1830 at Newark Valley, Tioga County. The engine was of the walking beam type. George Kirby built a steam sawmill at Nichols, Tioga County, in 1833. Other early steam mills were the following: Dexter & Davis at Caton, Steuben County, 1842; James E. Lyon, Hammond, St. Lawrence County, 1844; Col. L. S. Payne, Tonawanda, Erie County, 1847; Kitto & Broadway, Denmark, Lewis County, 1849. Even as late as 1865 three-quarters of the mills in New York State, it is said, were equipped with only one saw each and cut only 100,000 feet of lumber a year. This was when the lumber business was at its height.

PAGE 426

THE SUSQUEHANNA AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

All the territory drained by the Susquehanna and its tributaries was originally forest clad; and what a noble forest it was! Giant pines stood in the glens wholly unconscious of the part they were to play in the development of the country and the despised hemlocks made dark the hillsides and hollows. By 1855 the pines had become decimated and the “worthless” hemlocks were thought worthy of the saw.

By 1790 the valleys of the Susquehanna and its tributaries had been penetrated by hardy pioneers from the south and east. Captain Joseph Leonard and his family moved up the Susquehanna in a canoe from Wyoming in 1787 and made the first permanent settlement at Binghamton, then a forest of pines. He was followed later in the year by Colonel Rose, Joshua Whitney and a few others who settled in the same vicinity. George Goodhue built a sawmill in Addison Township, Steuben County, as early as 1793, in the settlement of the Lower Canisteo Valley. This was one of the most famous pine lumber regions in New York. Millard

PAGE 427

F. Roberts said it was also a “central point and resort for all the lumbermen in the northern border of Pennsylvania and what now constitutes Tuscarora, Woodhull, Jasper, Greenwood and Hornellsville to the ‘Deadwater,’ as Addison was then called. And it has been told repeatedly by most reputable persons that at this time a man could walk from Addison to Hornellsville on rafts, except where there was a dam or swift waters where rafts could not be landed. And this explains the fact that the Canisteo Valley raftsmen are said to be the most efficient managers of a raft in high waters to be found in all the country.”
     Charles Williamson, agent for the Poultneys, built two sawmills on the Cohocton near Bath (also in Steuben County) in 1792 and later employed a number of men to remove all the obstructions on the Cohocton and Mud Creek, making them both navigable for “arks” and rafts.
     In the spring of 1795 George McClure, later a man of prominence in that section and usually referred to as “General” McClure, ran an “ark” down the Cohocton and Susquehanna, with Baltimore as his objective point. The narrative of his experience as a lumberman is exceedingly interesting and is here given. He said:

I went to work and built an ark seventy-five feet long and sixteen feet wide, and in the course of the winter got out a cargo of pipe and hogshead staves, which I knew would turn to good account should I arrive safely in Baltimore. All things being ready, with cargo on board and a good pitch of water and a first rate set of hands, we put out our unwieldy vessel into the stream, and away we went at a rapid rate and in about half an hour reached White’s Island, five miles below Bath. There we ran against a large tree that lay across the river. We made fast our ark to the shore, cut away the tree, repaired damages and next morning took a fair start. It is unnecessary to state in detail the many difficulties we encountered before we reached Painted Post, but in about six days we got there. The Chemung river had fallen so low that we were obliged to wait for the rise of water. In four or five days we were favored with a good pitch of water. We made a fresh start and in four days ran 200 miles to Mohontongo [Mahantango], a place twenty miles from, where, through the ignorance of the pilot, we ran upon a bar of rocks in the middle of the river where it was one mile wide. There we lay twenty-four hours, no one coming to our relief or to take us on shore. At last a couple of gentlemen came on board and told us it was impossible to get the ark off until a rise of water. One of the gentlemen inquired, apparently very carelessly, what it cost to build an ark of that size and how many thousand staves we had on board. I suspected his object and answered him in his own careless manner. He asked me if I did not wish to sell the ark and cargo. I told him that I would prefer going through if there was any chance of a rise of water – that pipe staves in were worth $80 per thousand, “but if you wish to purchase and will make me a generous offer I will think of it.” He offered me $600. I told him that was hardly half price of the cargo at, but if he would give me $800 I would close a bargain with him. He said he had a horse, saddle and bridle on shore worth $200 which he would add to the $600. We all went ashore. I examined the horse and considered him worth the $200. We closed the bargain and I started for Bath. I lost nothing by the sale, but if I had succeeded in reaching Baltimore I should have cleared $500.

1 "Historical Gazetteer of Steuben County," 1891.

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     The same spring Jacob Bartles and his brother-in-law, Mr. Harey, made their way down Mud Creek with one ark and some rafts. Bartles' Mill Pond and Mud Lake afforded water sufficient at any time, by drawing a gate, to carry arks and rafts out of the creek. Harvey lived on the West Branch of the Susquehanna and understood the management of such craft.
     Thus it was ascertained to a certainty that by improving those streams we could transport our produce to Baltimore - a distance of 300 miles - in the spring of the year, for a mere trifle...
     My next start in business was attended with better success. My brother Charles kept a small store in Bath, and in the year 1800 we entered into partnership. I moved to Dansville, opened a store and remained there one year. I did a safe business and took in that winter 4,000 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels of pork - built four arks at Arkport, on the Canisteo River and ran them down to Baltimore. These were the first arks that descended the Canisteo. My success in trade that year gave me another fair start. My brother, in the meantime, went to Philadelphia to lay in a fresh supply of goods for both stores; but on his way home he died very suddenly at Tioga Point. He had laid in about $30,000 worth of goods. I returned to Bath with my family - continued my store in Dansville - opened one at Penn Yan and sent a small assortment to Pittstown, Ontario County. At this time I purchased the Cold Spring Mill site half way between Bath and Crooked Lake, with 200 acres of land, and purchased from the Land Office and others 800 acres to secure the whole privilege. Here I erected a flouring mill, sawmill, fulling mill and grinding machine.
     In the year 1814 I sold my Cold Spring Mills to Henry A. Townsend for $14,000. I erected other mills at Bath. In 1816 I ran down to Baltimore about 1,000,000 feet of pine lumber and 100,000 feet of cherry boards and curled maple. I chartered three brigs and shipped my cherry and curled maple and 500 barrels of flour to Boston. I sold my flour at a fair price, but my lumber lay a dead weight on my hands. At length the inventor of a machine for spinning wool by water-power offered to sell me one of his machines for $2,500 and take lumber in payment. I closed a bargain with him, which induced me to embark in woolen manufacture. I obtained a loan from the State and was doing well until Congress reduced the tariff for the protection of home industry to a mere nominal tax. The country immediately after was flooded with foreign fabrics and but few woolen factories survived the shock. 2

     In 1795, as stated in the above narrative, Frederick Bartles rafted 100,000 feet of boards from his mills on Mud Creek to Baltimore. It would seem, however, that General McClure was mistaken, as shown by Bartles' own testimony. In 1800 he ran two arks from that place, of which adventure the following record was entered by the county clerk in Volume I of "Records of Deeds." 3

     Steuben County - This fourth day of April, one thousand eight hundred, started from the mills of Frederick Bartles on the outlet of Mud Lake (Frederickstown) two arks of the following dimensions: - One built by Colonel Williamson, of Bath, 72 feet long and 15 feet wide; the other built by Nathan Harvey, 71 feet long and 125 feet wide, were constructed down the Cohocton (after going through Mud Creek without any accident) to Painted Post for Baltimore. Those arks are the first built in this

2 This narrative appears in the "History of the Settlement of Steuben County, New York." Guy H. McMasters, 1853, and was written by General McClure in the summer of 1850 at Elgrin, Illinois. General McClure was then eighty years of age, having been born in Ireland in 1770, coming to this country in June, 1790.
3 "History of the Settlement of Steuben County, New York," Guy H. McMasters, 1853.

PAGE 429

country exept the one built on the Cohocton at White's sawmill, five miles below Bath, by a Mr. Patterson, Sweeney and others, from Pennsylvania, 70 feet long and 16 feet wide, was finished and started about the 20th of March the same year.
This minute is entered to show at a future day the first commencement of embarkation in this (as it is hoped) useful invention.

By Henry A. Townsend
Clerk of Steuben County.

Mr. Townend differs from General McClure in placing the time of the first ark built in Steuben County. General McClure named 1795 as the date of his first venture.