I OCR'd this so there may be typos. bill http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~springport/pictures184/master.html This paper recieved by Lydia Hecht on December 1977 from Harris McIntosh =============================================== PAPER ON "Early Roads and Ferries, The Genesee Highway and Seneca Turnpike Roads." BY FRED TELLER. In the year 1771 his excellency Governor Tryon of New York, caused to be prepared a map of what now constitutes the northern, central and western parts of this state. It was the first map ever published of this region. It was as complete as could be made at that date. This map is a copy of the original which is known as the Guy Johnson map of 1771. Near the regions we are to consider tonight there is a paragraph which reads as follows, ^" There are more lakes hereabouts but they cannot be laid down with certainty." The waterways were the easiest known early methods of travel. If then the waterways were so little known it follows that the land passages were few and unfamiliar. This region lay in the very heart of the innermost recesses of the Iroquois Territories. Nature was as it had been from the beginning; undisturbed. Along the north bank of what this map terms "The Great Seneca River" are some dotted lines that the marginal notes explain are Indian paths. They lead from the chief village of the Cayuga tribe of Indians residing east of the Cayuga lake add -2- near its outlet, westward along the north bank of the river to Canadasaga, one of the important towns or castles of the Seneca tribes of Indians to the northwest of Seneca lake. This old Indian trail worn by the moccasin of the red man and perchance the captives they had adopted into their tribes, wound through unbroken forests the growth of countless centuries. Few besides the native red man had any desire to brave the perils of its way. Those that did occasionally were the trader, the Indian agent, the half breed, the squatter and the early French Jesuit missionaries. These early Jesuits missionaries from Montreal and Quebec were really the pioneer advance agents of early roadway beginings and I do not think that the venerable old Father Superior was very far out of the way when he said, "It is not fitting nor even well, That the work of our missions, I should tell, Nay, in martyrs blood and in characters bold, History has blazoned that narrative old: Indelibly printed on nature around, This Christian vanguards work is found. In saintly etched names all eyes may see, >From Corpus Christ! Bay to the Sault St. Marie, -3- Aloft the Cross, our mission reared Nor toil, nor death, nor torture feared. Truly, Deo Gratias !--Thanks be to God. Where the foot of the white man had ne'er before trod.^" Eight years later General Sullivan marched into this region. To so do he was obliged to prepare an opening through the heavy growth of timber for his battalions and artillery to advance. The axe for the first time cut a roadway into the wilds of this woodland solitude. Over this thoroughfare in the Interval emigrants from the German, Moravian and other settlements in Pennsylvania and other places to the south of us came and settled in this vicinity. They were our first and most hardy settlers. The same blood that the exertions of surmounting the difficulties of that early roadway quickened in the veins of these sturdy and energetic forefathers beats tonight in the hearts of many of their descendants. The old town of Junius had no better citizens than those who followed the old Indian trail that Sullivan had widened north from Newtown. The early records of the town of Romulus show that in June 1795 that this route was laid out into a highway from the south bounds of Romulus north to the Seneca outlet. In the year 1788 or a little later we hear of a roadway something over a mile In length that led around the rapids in -4- the Seneca river. Over it traveled the rustic conveyencc of Job Smith as he carted the belongings of the traveler around the falls. This route was over the same ground that a roadway con­tinued from the south side of the river laid out October 18, 1796 covered, which I will refer to next. In the year 1789 a narrow road had been blazed through the woods from in front of the log cabin of James Bennett on the west shore of Cayuga Lake at a point near where the Wayne cobblestone house now stands a short distance north of Cayuga Lake Park. This road ran north and then west and then north*-west diagonally across the country to the river. I have the survey of it here. It reads: Town of Romulus, Onondaga county October 18, 1796. Being petitioned by the Freeholders of said town laid out a highway as follows, (viz.) Beginning at Mr. Bennett^f s ferry on the bank of Ciuga (so spelled in the original) Lake, running thence by twenty seven different variations of the compass a distance of a little over two miles to Mr. Mynderse's mill thence by three additional variations to the lower lands. Thence to be continued up the Seneca outlet on the north side as near the said outlet as the ground will admit to Mr. Chapman's at Scoyes. Recorded October 24, 1796 and signed John Fleming and George Bailey, Commissioners of Highways. -5- Where the road started on the west shore of Cayuga Lake James Bennett had located, built him a log cabin and ran the ferry across the lake. He was a native of Northumberland County, Pa., and emigrated to this site in 1789. At this date these lands had not yet become the property of the state. The Cayuga Indians to whoa they belonged had reserved them in all previous treaties. The last treaty having been held the same year, February 25, 1789. By the terms of this treaty they had reserved besides a small reservation at Scoyes (now South Waterloo,) 'Where the Cayugas had heretofore taken eels) all lands in our present county east of the Reservation road and Ovid street south of the Seneca river. It contained 19,566 acres and reached a little over ten miles south. They reserved also the East Cayuga Reservation upon the east shore of the lake. This was somewhat longer in extent. James Bennett ran the ferry in connection with John Harris who had located on the east shore of the lake nearly opposite. John Harris had emigrated there from Harrisburg, Pa., a year previous In the year 1788. At the time Bennett located he had started a store and trading house in connection with the ferry. We learn from an entry in Dr. Coventry's Journal under date of July 7th 1791 some particulars in regard to this ferry as well as the fact that the road we have just described even then -6- five years before the road commissioners laid it out had become passable for horsemen. Dr. Alexander Coventry was the first physician to locate in this section of the country. He located near Seneca lake in the town of Fayette. The extract from his Journal read as follows: "Got to Cayuga ferry about half past eight in the evening. It was about two and one-half hours from Geneva. When we got to the ferry the scow was on the other side and no one to fetch it, also the wind blew hard. However got a young fellow to go over in a canoe along with me. He was confounded lazy and I had to steer. When we got over the master of the ferry would not start off under an hour. At last got our horses over and paid five shillings and six pence for voyage at this ferry and two and six at the other ferry (referring to ferry at Seneca outlet near Geneva) and seven and six for lodging." In 1789 John Harris was married at Levanna to Mary Richardson a native of Frederick City, Md. His marriage French's Gazeteer said was the first marriage of a resident of East Cayuga. His son John Harris, Jr.» born the following year, was the first white child born at the same place. In 1790 John Harris opened the first tavern at the Cayuga Ferry. This I presume being a natural sequence of his having secured a wife and helpmate. In 1795 the Cayuga Indians held -7- a treaty at the Cayuga Ferry and finally relinquished to the state of Hew York practically all the lands they had reserved in previous treaties. The Canoga reservation of one mile square was reserved for the Cayuga Chief called, (Fish Carrier.) The two reservations thus acquired were surveyed Into lots of 250 acres each except along the Irregular shores of the lake where they conform to that size as nearly as possible. This survey was made by Joseph Annon and John J. Cantine. This map is a copy of the original survey. It Is the property of the Hon. Deidrich Willers, formerly Secretary of State to whom I am greatly indebted for the use of old records, documents and valuable information. A clear understanding of subsequent events will be obtained if we become familiar with some of these locations. The black line bounding the west side of this tier of lots has already been referred to as the reservation road. Its having been the western boundary of this reservation gives It its name. It was laid out as a public highway and the survey recorded August 25th, 1808. This Is the Canoga Reservation reserved for the Cayuga Chief, Fish Carrier. This slightly larger one on the east shore and this a little further back, known as the mine reservation supposed to contain ore, was afterwards released to the state. All the other tribes of the six nations -8- had lands of some size set apart for their use but the Cayuga tribe were stripped of every foot of the broad domains and hunting grounds that had once been theirs; not even a place of burial was left them. All deeds and searches to real estate and property rights that our citizens have since acquired in this tract take their land titles from this survey. This lot No. 13 is Where John Bennett located six years previous and for which he afterward took out a patent. It contains 250 acres. His log cabin is shown here. In front of it are the two bridle paths one leading south and west and the other leading north and west as previously described. Its winding way seems to indicate that the Indians who first traveled it must have consumed considerable firewater. Lot No. 57 directly across the lake is where his partner in the ferry business located and which he also patented. This tract a little further north is of historic interest. It was reserved for Peter Ryckerman. This reservation in the treaty reads as follows: "And as a further consideration to the Cayuga's the people of the state of New York shall grant to their adopted child, Peter Ryckerman, whom they have expressed a desire shall reside near them to assist them and as a benevolence from them the Cayugas to him and in return for services rendered -9- by him to their nation, the said tract of one mile square at the Cayuga Ferry's excepted out of the lands reserved to the Cayugas for their own use and cultivation. Lot Ho. 5 is where the village of West Cayuga or Bridgeport was afterward built. It was patented by Joseph Annin and others. It is well to remember this as Joseph Annin and John Harris were two years later two of the five incorporators of the Cayuga Bridge Company. The father of John Harris, Samuel Harris, patented lot No. 56 immediately north of his sons. In the year 1794, John Harris upon the year of Its being erected into a county, was appointed the first sheriff of Onondag county. This office he held for two years. The territory comprised in addition to the present Onondaga county, Cayuga and Seneca counties also. During his second term of office as sheriff he established at Bridgeport or West Cayuga, a general store, an ashery and a distillery. From the year 1807 to 1809 John Harris served as our representative In Congress from the seventeenth district succeeding in that position Hon. Silas Halsey of this county. In a few years the settlement at the east end of the Cayuga ferry became a place of considerable importance. Simeon DeWitt, surveyor general of the state, deemed it of sufficient -10- importance in his survey to place its latitude on his map of 1802. It is north latitude 42 degrees 54 minutes 14 seconds. In the various enactments of the state in and around the year 1800 this settlement is referred to as the Cayuga Ferry. The act erecting Cayuga county from Onondaga in 1799 makes the Cayuga Ferry the county seat for the time being of our county. The third clause defines where courts are to be held as follows: "And be it further enacted, That the said court of common pleas and general sessions of the peace in the said county of Cayuga shall be held at the Cayuga Ferry in the village of Cayuga and town of Aurelius." The fifth clause which relates to the county gaol and also to the confining of all prisoners in the gaol of the county of Ontario (Canandaigua) until a gaol shall be provided in the said county of Cayuga. On the 25th of March 1800, our county is provided with a gaol at the Cayuga Ferry as per enactment of that date which states that "whereas Joseph Annin of the county of Cayuga hath by his petition represented that the gaol inconvenience arises and much expense is incurred by the transportation of prisoners from the said county to the county of Ontario and that a building hath been lately erected at the village of Cayuga of sufficient size and dimensions to accommodate all prisoners of said county with convenience and strength to afford the most complete -11- security for the safe keeping and that the proprietors of said building have offered them the use thereof for the purpose of a gaol of said county without any charge or expense, etc., Therefore the log house erected by the Cayuga Bridge Company at or near the easterly end of said bridge on the margin of Cayuga lake, shall be considered as the common gaol. On December 12, 1803, this gaol was occupied by the first murderer. It was an Indian known as Indian John. The crime was committed on the old Indian trail that ran from Bridgeport to the block house In Wayne county, near Clyde. The crime occurred a short distance north of the present residence of Rev. Pulaski Smith In the town of Tyre. The victim was one of the first settlers of that region, Ezeklel Crane. He owned a farm and ran a distillery nearby. When they entered the gaol which was built under an abutment at the east end of the bridge the following morning, they found the Indian prisoner nearly frozen as the night was very Inclement. He was later tried, convicted and hung. The Boad Township act was passed In 1789 for the purpose of opening a roadway west from Old Fort Schuyler. The legis­lature set aside a township of land In what Is now Madison county, the proceeds of which were to be applied for that purpose. Messrs. Phelps and Goram, who had immense tracts of -12- land beyond the preemption line which constituted the west boundary of our county, used every exertion to have the intent of this act carried out. About the close of the year 1789 they succeeded with the aid of John Taylor, an agent of the state and superintendent of Indian officers, in having a contract made with Ephriam Blackmer for the cutting out of a road two rods wide, from Old Fort Schuyler to Seneca lake. The work was commenced in the winter and early spring of 1790 and was under full headway in Hay. At that date the party were cutting out the timber not far from the present city of Syracuse and the road was completed late in the fall of the year to Cayuga Ferry and during the winter to Geneva. I say completed-the timber was cut off but the stumps were still in the road. The next act November 22, 1794, was for the purpose of laying out and improving this road from the same place and Fort Schuyler to the Cayuga Ferry and then west to the Genesee River. That this road needed improving we learn from Col. Williamson, Feb. 15, 1792, entry reads, "Left Albany on this route to the Genesee river but the country was thought so remote and so very little known that I could not prevail on the owner of the sled I had engaged to go further than Whitestown, a new settlement -13- on the head of the Mohawk river one hundred miles west from Albany. The road as far as Whites town had been made passable for wagons, but from there to the Genesee it was little better than an Indian path, just sufficiently open to allow a sled to pass and the almost impassable streams bridged. The great act however, that started the great Genesee highway as a road was the act of November 28, 1797. It was passed the same day as the act that incorporated The Cayuga Bridge Company. It was entitled "An act for improving certain roads within this state. It provides for a grand lottery of $45,000 of three drawings. "That out of the neat proceeds of the first lottery $11,700 and out of the neat proceeds of the third lottery $2,200 shall be and is hereby appropriated for the opening and improving of the road commonly called the Great Genesee Road in all its extent from Old Fort Schuyler in the county of Herkimer to Geneva in the county of Ontario." It provides that it may deviate from the road where the intended bridge over the Cayuga lake is to be erected instead whereoff a road shall be opened from the same place to intercept the great Genesee Road on the east and west side of said lake at such points as the commissioners shall deem most beneficial to the community at large. -14- This act was most enthusiastically championed by a gentleman who was most active in seeing that its provisions were carried out. Capt. Charles Willlamson here referred to was the agent of the Pulteney estate. When Robert Morris purchased the Phelps and Gorham tracts of land in November 1790, a sale was made in London of a large portion of it to Sir William Pulteney and his associates. As no arrangements had been made for aliens holding real estate arrangements were made to have Capt. Willlamson come out here and act as their resident agent. He arrived at Norfolk, Va., in the winter of 1791. On the 9th of January 1792, he took the oath of allegiance at the supreme court of Philadelphia and was admitted to be a citizen of the United States of America. The deed of convey­ance from Robert Morris and Mary, his wife to Charles Willlamson bears date April 11, 1792. Capt. Willlamson represented Ontario county in the legislature upon the passage of the above act. He was also one of the largest stock holders in the Cayuga Bridge Co. and the first named one of its directors. Although the above was defective and required amendment to make it effective Capt. Willlamson did not wait for the pas­sage of the amendment. He commenced active operations at once. Four thousand days work was subscribed through his exertions along its route. In a letter published in the Documentary -15- History 111, he says they performed the work with fidelity and cheerfulness. By his generous and uncommon exertion and by some other contributions the state commissioner was enabled to complete the road of nearly one hundred miles, opening it sixty four feet wide and paving with logs and gravel the moist places of the low country through which it was carried. Hence the road from Fort Schuyler--from being in the month of June 1797 a little better than an Indian path, was so far Improved that a stage started from Fort Schuyler on the 30th of September and arrived at the hotel in Geneva in the afternoon of the third day with four passengers. This was considered remarkable time and a causa of great congratulation. In Col. Wilhelmus Mynderee account books in June and July of this year are found a number of entries for sums paid, for laying out and work upon this road, to Capt. Wllllamson. The completing of this highway and bridge turned the great tide of travel that had set in immediately, after the war through our county. In the great movement toward the Genesee country, a continuous procession passed through our midst. It was composed of those on foot and on horseback, an Interesting panorama of livestock, companies of emigrants, stage wagons, and six and eight horse canvas covered freighters, were ever on the move. The road passed through our village by way of -16- Seneca street crossed the river at, or very near where the lower bridge, near the Rumsey shops is now, following the present line of Fall Street, westward. In the year 1800 an act passed the legislature incorpora­ting the Seneca road or Turnpike Co. This road was to run between the house of John House in the village of Utica and the court house in Canandaigua, The route was practically the same as the Genesee highway. The trustees were Charles Williamson, Benjamin Waker, Jedediah Sanger and Israel Chapin. The road was to be six rods in width and the center to be filled with broken stone, the center to be not less than twenty inches higher than the edges, at least eighteen feet in center to be bedded with wood or stone to secure a solid foundation. Toll houses were to be ten miles from each other. No person passing to or from public worship on Sunday, going to their common labor on farms, carrying fire wood, going to or from mill for the grinding of grain for family use, going to or returning from any funeral shall pay any toll in the town in which they reside. Up to 1823 there were twelve different amendments passed to this company's charter. As time went on the flow of travel over this road increased. Everywhere along its route activity and prosperity prevailed. A chain of towns and villages grew -17- up its entire length, east of us Hardensburg's Corners grew to be Auburn. In that city to this day the street through which the Genesee road passed, still retains the name Genesee street. The same is true also of many of the hamlets that have since grown to be cities and towns through which it passed. East and West Cayuga, or Bridgeport as it was afterwards called, partook largely of the general prosperity, lots for miles around the east end of the bridge were surveyed into lots by the Cayuga Co. At Bridgeport the whole of lot No. 5, which you will recall was patented by Joseph Axmin and others was likewise plotted. Mr. J. N. Hammond has kindly loaned me this map of the subdivision. Mr. Hammond found it in an out of the way place in the Cayuga county clerk's office and in return for his services in bringing it to light and having it properly indexed was presented with this certified copy. It was recorded November 9, 1801. Within a few days of its date of record nearly one-half of these lots changed title in Cayuga county clerks office and a still larger number at east Cayuga. There is much of interest here that time will not per­mit a reference to. The large taverns and immense barns, the trading stores, the distilleries, asheries, blacksmith shops, sadlerles, shoemakers shop, etc. -18- The winter the Genesee highway was completed two stages, one of them a stage wagon made weekly trips between Albany and Canandaigua. In 1804 Jason Parker and Lev! Stevens secured by legislative enactment the exclusive right to run stage wagons for seven years on this new turnpike between Utica and Canandaigua. These stages made two trips per week. In 1808 the state road, two miles north of us was laid out, John Sayre, Joshua VanVlett and Samuel Larzalere acting as commissioners. This was the year the Cayuga bridge across the lake went down the second time. Seventeen years later action was taken which resulted in the building of a road directly east through the Montezuraa marshes and the erection of what has since been known as the Free Bridge. I am fortunate in having in my possession the original documents that were drawn up for the purpose of carrying out that project. These are the names of the Free Bridge Building Committee, Phelps, Manchester, Mentz, Aurelius and Tyre are represented: Thomas C. Magee representing the last named town, William E. Woodworth and Nathan P. Mathews represent Seneca county on the committee to circulate subscription list. I have two of these lists which are ruled with columns for cash contribu­tions, contributions of produce and labor. There is but one contribution of cash, five dollars, on either list. Sixteen -19- dollars in produce contributed by three subscribers, four fur hats to be delivered in thirty days and 1500 feet of bridge planks delivered in any mill yard constitute the contributions of produce. In the labor columns, one person contributes ten dollars in labor another ten days works, another two days with oxen and another who ran a distillery contributes six days whiskey found. The next paper is a memoranda of agreement between Samuel Trlpp and Nelson Roosevelt respecting the building of the causeway for the Free Bridge in which Samuel Trlpp agrees to make alternate sections of the causeway containing forty rods in a section and Nelson Roosevelt the others. An Injunction of which this is a copy, is served on them by the Cayuga Bridge Company restraining the said Thomas C. Magee and associates all of whom are named from erecting any bridge within three miles of either of the bridges built or kept by the complainants across the Cayuga lake or the outlet thereof. This is the Supreme Court writ in the nature of a subpoena commanding the persons named personally to appear before our chancelor in our court of chancery on the first day of March next, "wheresoever the said court shall than be." A subscription list was at once started to secure the funds to defend the suit and this is the original list, with the signatures of the subscribers. -20- I have a unique document which was no doubt a part of the defense. It Is a survey bill between the South Cayuga Bridge and the Montezuma Bridge and reads: "that agreeable to the orders of one of the committee I started on Saturday the llth of February with my line between the two bridges with Peter Garno hind chainman and Nathan Wager forward chainman and found the distance to be six miles, seventy-seven chains and sixty-two links and we found that the chain by actual measurement with a correct measure is six Inches too long." The chain and compass belonged to Esq. Burton of Waterloo Signed, A. P. Compo, Surveyor. Comment, "If Squire Burton who has a large number of maps filed in our clerk^f s office has been giving us all such good land measure, no wonder the people of Seneca county are a happy and contented people. In 1809 Isaac Sherwood became a partner with Jason Parker in the stage lines through this county carrying the United States mail. In 1816 the fast line of stages made the run between Canandalgua and Utlca in thirty-six hours. The projectors of the line were Isaac Sherwood & Co., Aaron Thorp, I. Whitmore, Jason Parker and Thomas Powell. Somewhere in the twenties a splendid new line of stage coaches was placed on the pike by J. M. Sherwood & Co. of Auburn. -21- This was a most popular line in charge of experienced and careful drivers and fleet horses. It ran day and night. I have a ticket here, the property of Miss Jennie Cowing, which entitles the holder to a passage in one of their way coaches from Auburn to Geneva which it states is to be given up when called for. I have a letter, also the property of Miss Cowing, who, by the way, has a most superb collection of colonial and historical documents and articles of historic value. This letter was posted by mail coach from Manchester to Niagara Falls on which the postage is twelve pence, which is about twenty-four cents for posting a letter from Central to Western Hew York. Through the kindness of Mr. Mongin of the secretary of state's office in Albany, I am enabled to present memoranda obtained from the office of the state engineer and surveyor and state comptroller in reference to lot no. 5 on which the village of Bridgeport stands in the former West Cayuga Reserva­tion. It states that said lot of 250 acres was sold by the surveyor general November 1st, 1796 to Joseph Annin, Luther Trobridge and Wilhelmus Mynderse for $1,260. They gave a bond of 1,235. Said lot was divided into sixty-six or more sub­divisions. Among the transfers of the sub-divisions occur the names of a number that ran famous taverns at the Bridge and recall a host of recollections that have for nearly a century clung around that quarter of old Junius. There was the Daniel -22- Sayre tavern; John Stone's, father of the late Col. John Stone; the old Christopher tavern north-west of the Bridge kept by the old Revolutionary patriot, Gen. Christopher Baldy, in 1810; the Robert's tavern of 1812 on the north side from the Bridge. It was there that Capt. John Richardson's company put up on the first day's march to the frontier. They were attired, an old chronicler tells us, in hunting frocks of green worsted with yellow fringe and equipped with flint lock rifles, hunting knives, bullet pouches and powder horns. At this hostelry on the old stage road the captain surrendered at the first encounter to the charms of Eliza Roberts, the landlord's daughter, his future wife. There were also the Olivers, John and Amos, and the Jacob Stahl tavern where town meetings were held. There were a host of other well night forgotten, places around which our fore-fathers used to gather when the stages drove up to learn the news from New York that was only seven days old and not quite three months ancient history from the Old Country. "Long ago, at the end of the route, The stage pulled up and the folks stepped out. They have all passed under the tavern door. The youth and his bridge, and the grey three score; Their eyes were weary with dust and gleam; The day had passed like an idle dream; -23- Soft may they slumber, their troubles are o'er, The eager journey, its jolt and roar; In the old coach--over the mountain." ================ Notes by Lydia Hecht regarding page 8 Lot 13 on west shore of Cayuga Lake is south of where Bill Lazelere now (1977)lives. (on road from where Cayuga Bridge Crossed the Lake) Lot 57 on the East Cayuga Reservation is near the Wayne's Point Area- possibly encompasses Lind, Gardner etc. new houses on Rt 90.

Very interesting - wish we could get more like this. Thanks for sending and thanks to Lydia. fran Jackson