From Geneva Gazette 24 July 1847

Lake Canadesaga

The county of Ontario was organized by act of January 27, 1789, and was taken from Montgomery. It included all the State of New-York west of this lake, so far as a meridian line drawn from the 82d mile stone on the Pennsylvania line, and stretching to Lake Ontario, corresponded with it. About the same time the State and the Indians sold out their right to the land lying between this meridian line and the Genesee river, forming a tract of country forty-five miles from east to west and eighty-four from north to south. The settlement of this country was commenced in the year 1788, but its progress, for the reasons before mentioned, was slow, and at this time the communication with the Seneca lake from the Mohawk was nothing but an Indian path. Two years afterwards there were only 960 persons, including travellers and surveyors with their attendants, within the district west of the lake; and even the village of Geneva, situate at the foot of the lake, consisted of only a few log houses.
Westward from Geneva the Indian path continued to the Genesee river, only four families residing in that distance. In 1792, the time spoken of above, there was only a small Indian store and tavern at Geneva. The Friends, however, had a settlement on the west side of the lake, near the Miniseta or Long Point. But the inhabitants, owing to their fewness compared with the number of Indians, were under serious apprehensions for their safety. This year a road was opened from the county of Ontario southwardly to Williamsport, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, in the midst of the rich agricultural districts of Pennsylvania. From this time the improvement of the country became singularly rapid.

Upon the defeat of St. Clair in the New Miami country, Gen. Wayne was appointed commander-in-chief. A treaty was held the previous year at the Painted Post, upon the Chemung, with the Six Nations, at which it was arranged that their principal men should visit Philadelphia during the ensuing session of Congress, in order, among other things, to render them more friendly disposed towards the Americans. The delegations who met there not only agreed to a peaceable course of conduct themselves, but also agreed to throw their influence into the scale in order to bring about a peace between the Americans and hostile Indians, who had become even more inveterate since their victory. In accordance with this agreement, a council was held at the Miama Rapids in the autumn of 1792, but the hostile Indians did not receive the overtures of pacification with any pleasure from their red brethren of the Six Nations. The Chief Red Jacket, of the Senecas, spoke in favor of the Indians friendly to peace. The only result, however, was an agreement upon the part of those who were in favor of war, to suspend offensive operations during the ensuing winter, and meet again in council the following spring. The cause of the difficulties, was an impressions that government wished to deprive them of their lands, and the difficulty of adjusting a boundary between the whites and Indians, the former claiming land which the latter asserted was sold by those who were not authorized to do so.

In the spring of 1793, a great scarcity of provisions was experienced, much increased by the emigration into the county of Ontario. Large quantities were brought by the newly opened road from the south to keep the settlement together. In August of that year, another council was held at the former place of meeting, in which the hostile Indians insisted upon the Ohio as the boundary between them and the whites, which the American commissioners rejected. The delegates of the Six Nations endeavored to conciliate, but upon these terms the negotiation was at an end. Government, during the same year, proposed another council, but would not, in the mean time, interrupt the operations of the army. Conciliatory measures were used with the Six Nations, and various presents made them in order to secure their friendship.

In the year 1794, the settlers of Ontario began to find a market for their produce, and made great exertions, and various new settlements were commenced, and mills and roads were being built. The friendly temper of the Six Nations, however, was considerably cooled on account of the boundary line ostensibly not meeting their views, but measurably incited by the hostile feelings of the English and Americans, growing out of events transpiring during the course of the French Revolution. The council on the 25th of April broke up in a warlike spirit, and raised a presumption that the Six Nations would take up arms with their brethren of the west.

On the 20th of August, the Indians of the west, amounting to 2500 in number, suffered a severe defeat from the American troops under General Wayne. In this action some of the Senecas were engaged against the Americans in the vicinity of the Miami Rapids. The victory of Wayne had a pacifying influence upon the Six Nations within the United States; yet there was still a prospect of the continuance of war with their coadjutors of the west.

In the year 1795 the course of civilization and improvement was onward in the county of Ontario. Many settlements were this year began on the Indian line; roads were also cut in many directions, and many mills erected on the different streams in the neighborhood of the settlements. In March the existing difficulties between Great Britain and the United States were adjusted, which deprived the Indians of all encouragement in that quarter; and by a treaty made with the Indians by General Wayne, on the third of August, an end was put to the scenes of cruelty that had afflicted the border population for so many years.

By act of March 18, 1796, the Legislature divided the county of Ontario into two parts; the north half retained the name of Ontario, and the south assuming that of Steuben; both extending from the Lake Canadesaga to Lake Erie. The number of emigrants were now estimated at 3000 a year. Framed houses also began to arise among the clearings, and the comforts of life were rapidly increasing. This year, a sloop of forty tons was launched upon the bosom of the Canadesaga. Several people collected upon the occasion. to witness the novel spectacle. We may imagine the shouts that greeted her as she glided upon the blue waters, then lying within their primeval borders of dark forests. The sloop was intended to ply as a packet between Geneva and Catharine's Town, at the head of the lake. A village this season was also commenced on the outlet of the Crooked Lake, near where it empties into the Canadesaga, which was named Hopetown. Large quantities of surplus wheat and other produce were now raised for sale, which was sent through various channels. In 1797 the emigration very much increased. The Legislature took the road from Geneva to Whitestown under their patronage, and in connection with a subscription among the owners of lands through which the road passed, it was opened sixty-four feet wide and one hundred miles in length. The number of sail boats upon the lake this year very much increased, and the sloop found constant employment.

1798 -- This year the number of families coming into this country was very much upon the increase. It was not till after the western posts were delivered up to the United States that settlers approached the Genesee river. Their fear of exposure to Indian depredations, was sufficient to deter the industrious from settling upon the frontier; they however now began to settle there in great numbers.
In 1806, when villages were few and very far between, and taverns were the great landmarks upon the roads, we find the following given as the route and distance to Geneva, and so onward through the county of Ontario to Niagara:

From Albany to Humphrey's Tavern
McKown's
Douw's
Truax's
Schenectady
Groat's
John Fonda's
Conolly's
Roseboom's Ferry (Canajoharie)
Hudson's (Indian Castle)
Adridge's (German Flats)
Brayton's
Utica (old Fort Schuyler)
Whitestown
Laud's Tavern
Rome (Fort Stanwix)
Oneida Castle
Wemp's
John Denna's
Foster's
Morehouse's
Keeler's or Danforth's
Carpenter's
Buck's
Goodrich's
Huggins'
Cayuga Bridge
Seneca
Geneva
Amsden's
Well's
Sanburn's (Canandaigua)
Sears & Peck's
Genesee River
Indian Town of Towanda
Niagara

Miles
2
3
2
5
4-16
12
12
7
3-50
13
11-74
13
3
4-94
9
3
8
5
7
5
6
5
15
3
8
4
7-176
3
11-190
6
8
4-208
13
14-235
40
35-310

From Geneva Gazette 5 June 1846

The Genesee Country in 1792

EDITOR OF THE GENEVA GAZETTE:

Dear Sir -- I send you a few extracts from a pamphlet entitled "A Description of the Genesee Country, in a Series of Letters from a Gentleman to his Friend," printed towards the close of the last century.

Very respectfully,

J. Tremper

"In the year 1790, the Legislature of the State of New York formed into a county by the name of Ontario, all that part of the State lying west of a meridian line drawn from the 82d mile stone, on the Pennsylvania line, to Lake Ontario. Within this is included the tract known by the name of the Genesee Country -- bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, on the west by Niagara river and Lake Erie, on the south by the State of Pennsylvania, and on the east by the counties of Tioga and Onondaga.

The settlement of the country was begun in the year 1788; but, separated as it was at that time at such a distance from all other settlements -- on the south hemmed in by the Allegany mountains, on the east by a wilderness of one hundred miles, on the north by Lake Ontario, and on the west by a wilderness extending to the South Sea -- at the same time having no communication with the settlements on the eastern coast, but by an Indian path from the outlet of the Seneca Lake to Fort Schuyler -- it is not to be wondered at if it made but little progress in population and improvements for many years.

We find by the census taken two years afterwards, that there were only nine hundred and sixty souls, including all travellers, and surveyors and their attendants, who happened at that time to be within the bounds of the county.

On the 15th February 1792, I left Albany on my 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 stage to engage farther than Whitestown, a new settlement at the head of the Mohawk, 100 miles from Albany. The road as far as Whitestown had been made passable for wagons, but from that to the Genesee river, was but little better than an Indian path, sufficiently opened to allow a sledge to pass, and some impassable streams bridged. At Whitestown, I was obliged to change my carriage, the Albany driver getting alarmed for himself and horses, when he found that for the next hundred miles we were not only obliged to take provisions for ourselves, but for our horses, and blankets for our beds. On leaving Whitestown, we found only a few struggling huts, scattered along the path from 19 to 20 miles from each other; and they affording nothing but the conveniences of fire, and a kind of shelter from the snow. On the evening of the third day's journey from Whitestown, we were very agreeably surprised to find ourselves on the east side of Seneca Lake, which we found perfectly open, free of ice as in the month of June; the evening was pleasant and agreeable, and what added to our surprise and admiration, was to see a boat and canoe plying upon the lake. After having passed from New York over 360 miles of country completely frozen, the village of Geneva, though then consisting of a few log houses, after the dreary wilderness we had passed through, added not a little to the beauty of the prospect. We forded the outlet of the lake, and arrived safely at Geneva.

The situation of this infant settlement on the banks of a sheet of water 44 miles long by 4 to 6 wide, daily navigated by small craft and canoes, in the month of February, was a sight as gratifying as it was unexpected. It appeared that the inhabitants of this delightful country would by the slight covering of snow on the ground, have all the conveniences of a northern winter; and by the waters of the Lake being free from ice, have all the advantages of this inland navigation -- a combination of advantages, perhaps, not to be experienced by any other country in the world.

From Geneva to Canandaigua, the road is only the Indian path, a little improved; the first five miles over gentle swellings of land, interspersed with bottoms seemingly very rich; the remainder of the road to Canandaigua, the county town, 16 miles, was, the greatest part of the distance, through a heavy timbered, rich land; on this road there were only two families settled. Canandaigua, the county town, consisted of two small frame houses and a few huts, surrounded with thick woods; the few inhabitants received me with much hospitality, and I found abundance of excellent venison.

From Canandaigua to the Genesee river, 26 miles, it is almost totally uninhabited, only four families residing on the road; the country is beautiful and very open, in many places the openings are free of all timber, appearing to contain at least 2 or 300 acres, beautifully variegated with hill and dale. It seemed that by only enclosing any of them with a proportionable quantity of timbered land, an enclosure might be made not inferior to the parks in England. At the Genesee river I found a small Indian store and tavern; the river was not then frozen over, and so low as to be fordable. Upon the whole, at this time there were not any settlements of any consequence in the whole of the Genesee country; that established by the Friends on the west side of Seneca Lake, was the most considerable, consisting of about 40 families. At this period the number of Indians in the adjoining country was so great, when compared with the few white inhabitants who ventured to winter in the country, that I found them under serious apprehension for their safety. Even in this state of nature, the county of Ontario shows every sign of future respectability; no man has put the plough in the ground without being amply repaid; and through the mildness of winter, the cattle brought into the country the year before, on very slender provision for their subsistence, were thriving well. The clearing of land for spring crops is going on with spirit; I also found the settlers abundantly supplied with venison."

From Geneva Courier 4 April 1883

A TRIP ON THE SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY FROM GENEVA TO NAPLES

We'll suppose it is November and the new railroad is completed. A train of cars is drawn up at the central depot, a start is made; the train keeps the New York Central track for a short distance and then leaves it, going a little to the north east. Describing part of a circle we recross the central tracks and are riding over the Torrey farm just north of of Geneva. The curve spreads out and the train approaches the Experiment Station. We push under a bridge built upon the Seneca Castle highway and just west of Dr. Sturtevant's house. The train then rolls along through a comparatively flat country to STANLEY.

Here our first stop is made and we see the mail train of the Ontario Southern road, just ready to start for Lake Ontario. One or two coal trains loaded with coal for Canada, will follow the passenger. The Philadelphia express is ready to start. A huge grain elevator has just been erected near the junction of the two roads, and through the window we can Ed. Dixon, with pen behind his ear, who has come over from Halls to see about his new elevator. Stanley is now a railroad centre. The Northern Central passes through it. It is the southern terminus of the Ontario Southern, and the new line from Geneva to Pittsburgh, passing through it suddenly makes it suddenly a reputation.

The train has started during our reverie and after a few minutes' ride we read GORHAM VILLAGE and the business centre of a town of over 3000 population, with indications of a still larger increase. We are again on our way and soon find a third stop. This time it is another thriving centre, RUSHVILLE. Buildings are going up. Mr. S. K. Nester of Geneva, has built a huge malt house, rivaling the one at Geneva. Side tracks have been laid and indications point, as in Gorham, to a steady business traffic. Conductor Smith, of Geneva, stops this reverie by crying "all aboard," and we are soon in Yates county, passing through its north west corner, Italy Hollow. A short stop is made at Middlesex Centre, in the town of the same name, with a population of 1,600 people. A little longer trip this time and we view some of the finest scenery in New York State.

NAPLES is soon reached, where we make several minutes stop. This village is the largest we have yet seen. It lies on the inlet of Canandaigua Lake, and is about four miles from the lake. It is eighteen miles south of Canandaigua, and is striving to make its population 1,000, which it will soon do. It has a bank, several large stores and two newspapers. it is also the terminus of two stage routes. Until this road was built, it had no railroad communication.

The bell rings, and we start again. The country we have passed through is one of the best for grain raising that there is in the State, and the amount shipped is large. Our train is now running into Steuben county. We are in the town of Cohocton, but are too far north for the village. We soon see the smoke of another train.

The train men call out BLOOD'S STATION. The cars stop and as we go on the platform we see the Erie train just starting out. It is a train on the Rochester Branch of the Erie, starting from Corning. Blood's is about 25 miles northwest of Bath on the same road. After passing the Cohocton River, we go into the town of Wayland. The country is hilly and rather mountainous. We soon see another train. This time it is on the Delaware, Lackawana and Western Rail road and we are at PERKINSVILLE, a few miles from Dansville -- where the sick people go and where plenty of healthy ones go so that they can read Editor Bunnell's Advertiser, the home organ of the Republican party, and of no man in it.

"All aboard," is sounded and we are again going through a hilly country. Our next stopping place is OSSIAN, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, a small but lively place. The town proper has a population of about 1,500 inhabitants. A moment's delay and again we are off. And for a fourth time we see a train of cars. This time we reach the end of our journey, having to change cars for Buffalo. The town is SWAINSVILLE, Alleghany county, and is on the northwestern division of the Erie railroad.

The train we have left starts up and in a hour or so will be in Olean, where the passengers will alight. Those going south will take the cars on the line to Pittsburgh, the southern terminus of a great road to connect the coal fields with New York State. {A Courier reporter on the Southwestern in the sweet by and by.}

From Geneva Gazette 22 October 1886

ALL ABOARD FOR NEW YORK

To see the Grand Pageant

UNVEILING THE BARTHOLDI STATUE !

Round Trip $6.50 Round Trip

BY THE

LEHIGH VALLEY ROUTE

Incomparably the grandest and most attractive route to the Metropolis. Excursion train leaves GENEVA Tuesday, Oct. 26th at 10:55 a.m. Tickets good for ten days, and the holder can return on any regular train
within that time, with the privilege of stopping over at Mauch Chunk, the "Switzerland of America" in its grand
and sublime mountain scenery.
The unveiling of the great Bartholdi statue will take place with most imposing ceremonies, including a grand procession of several hundred steam vessels, barges and other vessels gaily decorated with bunting, on the 28th inst. President Cleveland and his Cabinet and the Governors of several states will be present, and it is intended to make the day a grand holiday occasion.

For excursion tickets or other information address H. D. Dox, No. 12 Castle st., Geneva.

From Geneva Gazette 29 October 1886

Eight cars were needed to hold the New York excursionists last Tuesday, and every car was full. The train left here at 10:55 a.m., and no doubt a hundred more people joined the party between here and Ithaca. The projectors must have made a handsome thing out of the project, a couple of hundred dollars apiece anyway, which will pay them royally for their work. Mauch Chunk and the Bartholdi statue festivities caught the people.

From Geneva Gazette 5 November 1886

It is said that Bartholdi got his first idea of his big girl by seeing a Clyde girl's foot. He made the foot and was a little discouraged at first at the prospect of making the rest of her to correspond, but he did it. He says it was the biggest job he ever undertook. -- Wayne Dem. Press.

Note: Clyde is located in Wayne County, north of Ontario County.

As far back as the days when only Native Americans lived in the area, Seneca Lake, the longest of the Finger Lakes, has been a source of mystery, legend and superstition for local residents of all ages. One old, but unfounded, rumor is that deep Seneca Lake has no bottom in some places. Another tale is that a creature similar in description to the Loch Ness Monster will make itself apparent if you watch the lake long enough. Here's another account to add to the lore, an encounter a small group of credible adults had with the sleek monster back in 1899:

The Sea Serpent

Alleged to have Eyes like a Fish.
And when life departed from his bulky hulk he sank with never a wink.

From last week's Saturday Review.

Fish with legs and black snakes that milk the Jersey cows have inhabited the waters of Seneca Lake and infested the meadows of Ontario's pastures for three years and a half past, or from the time their darksome homes were probed by the inky blackness of the reportorial pen of a denizen of the roving commission department of the New York Sun, until now. All that so far have been drawn from their watery obscurity into the sunlight of newspaper exposure have been decapitated by axe or barbed wire until the latest and biggest of the reptilian mammiferous and pachydermatous creatures made its appearance on Saturday last. This one died of a paddlewheelerian blow and its demise is accounted for by the following "truthful" tale telegraphed broadcast over the United States by that prince of newspaper veracity, the New York Sun, which shines for almost everybody and whose escutcheon is emblazoned with the redoubtable inscription, "When you see it in the Sun, it's so." This is only so-so:

Geneva, N.Y. July 15, 1899

The Otetiani, a side wheel steamboat belonging to the Seneca Lake Steam Navigation company, officered by Captain Carleton C. Herendeen and Pilot Frederick Rose, was between Dresden and Willard a few minutes before 7 o'clock last evening, when Pilot Rose saw about 400 yards ahead, what appeared to him to be an overturned boat. He called Captain Herendeen who examined the object with his glass. It appeared to be about 25 feet long, with a very sharp bow and long, narrow stern. Amidships it was much broader and higher than at either end.

A number of passengers gathered around the pilot house and discussed the supposed boat. Among them were President of the Board of Public Works, Commissioners of Public Works Albert L. Fowle and D.W. Hallenbeck, Police Commissioner George C. Schell, Fred S. Bronson, manager of the Geneva Telephone company, and Charles E. Coon, a commercial traveler for a Philadelphia house, all resident of this city, and Professor George R. Elwood of Guelph, Ont., a geologist who has been studying the country around the lake.

When Captain Herendeen completed his examination of the object, the pilot signalled the engineer to slow down. The steamboat approached to within 100 yards and preparations were made to lower a boat. As the davits were swung outward, the supposed upturned boat turned and began to move away.

"Full speed ahead," shouted the captain. The object was moving slowly and the steamboat gained on it rapidly. The object again turned, this time toward the boat, raising its head, looked in the direction of the boat and opened its mouth, displaying two rows of sharp, white teeth.

The captain said that he would ram the creature with the boat and take it alive, if possible. Otherwise he would kill it, and either take it aboard or tow it to Geneva.

The boat was turned so that the creature would be approached from the side. The deck was crowded with passengers. These the captain ordered amidships in order to avoid any accident should the creature attempt to come aboard after the attack was begun. The captain cautioned everybody to get a life preserver and keep cool, because he said he did not know what would happen when the boat struck the monster. Some of the women, who were in tears, retired to the cabin, the others showed as much interest and excitement in the case as the men. The boat fell away some distance and turned to make the attempt to ram the creature. The captain signalled full speed ahead, and in a moment the Otetiani was under way.

Every eye on deck was fixed on the monster and hardly a person was breathing normally. While the boat was yet some distance from it, the monster again looked at the boat, sank out of sight and the boat passed over the spot where it had been. Some of the passengers decided that they could see a dark outline of the creature's body.

The steamer prepared to continue her course to this city.

"There it is," suddenly exclaimed one of the women passengers, who was standing on the after deck.

The "thing" had come up. The passengers, with the captain in advance, ran to the stern of the vessel and within fifty yards the long, lithe body of the monster was lying on the surface in practically the same position as when discovered. The captain ordered the boat put about and the attack was renewed. Instead of trying to strike the creature full in the side the boat was maneuvered, so that the starboard paddle wheel would strike it about midway between its head and tail.

The boat went ahead under full steam, the monster paid no attention to it, and with a thud which all heard and felt, the steamboat struck the spot.

The force of impact threw every one off his feet, and the vessel careened violently to port, but quickly righted. For an instant everybody wondered what would happen next. There was not a sound on board except the engine. Then the men on board cheered and some of the more timid of the women recovered from their fright and screamed.

Lying close beside the steamer, with a gaping wound in its side, was the monster. It raised its head, gave what sounded like a gasp, and lay quiet. Its spinal column had been broken and it was dead.

The life boats were quickly lowered and rowed to its side and with the aid of boat hook ropes were placed around the carcass. Other ropes which were fastened on board the steamer were then passed up and attached to the improvised swings. All helped to haul the monster in. The carcass was clear of the water when the rope near the tail slipped off and the tail dropped into the water.

The weight on the other rope then became so great that it began to slip through the bands of those holding it. They were compelled to let go or go overboard. As soon as the body struck the water it began to sink and disappeared. At the point where the carcass was lost the lake is over six hundred feet deep and as is well known bodies of persons who have been drowned in that part of the lake never again rise or are recovered.

When the steamer arrived in this city shortly before midnight the stories of the monster were about the same, although in some the imagination was given free play and the length of the monster was estimated at from 25 to ninety feet. The most careful and perhaps most trustworthy account was given by Professor George R. Elwood, a geologist who lives in Guelph, Ont., who was in one of the life boats that made a rope fast around the carcass.

"Do you know what a Clidiastes is?" the Professor asked the Herald correspondent.

"Well, that is exactly what the creature we saw last night seemed to be. It was about twenty-five feet long, with a tail which tapered until within about five feet of the end, when it broadened out and looked much like a whale. The creature weighed about one thousand pounds.

"It's head was perhaps four feet long and triangular in shape. Its mouth was very long and was armed with two rows of triangular white teeth as sharp as those of a shark, but in shape more like those of a sperm whale. Its body was covered with a horny substance which was as much like the carapace of a terrapin as anything else of which I know. This horny substance was brown in color and of a greenish tinge. The belly of the creature, which I saw after the rope slipped and the carcass was going down, was cream white. Its eyes were round like those of a fish, and it did not wink."

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