Historical Wyoming County May 1952 - Old Fulton History

May 1952 Page 98
WARSAW, THE QTJEEN OP WYOMING VALLEY (cont.)
marry "the girl he left behind him", but she was so much changed for
the worst, had grown so old and homely, that he never said a word,
but returned to his bachelor home on the frontier. The next year,
however, he grew so lonely that he made another visit to his early
home, proposed to another maiden and was accepted. Girls were very
scarce about Warsaw then, though there are many beautiful ones there
now. The first year that Mr. Salisbury came to Warsaw he alone
cleared four acres of forest, and has cleared over 100 acres altogether
.
THE OLDEST INHABITANT
The Democrat & Chronicle reporter also visited Mrs. Simeon
Hovey, who came here in I80J4., and has lived here since then. She
told her story--I am ninety, and was born in 1785° 1 went from
Massachusetts with my father to Pennsylvania and we came from there
in 1803 to Geneseo, where my husband built barns for the Wadsworths.
We lived there a year and then moved to Leicester, now Moscow, where
my husband built a barn for Judge Phelps. Then we came through the
woods to Shubal Morris' house where we remained one night. There was
little cleared land then. We moved here March 9> l80lj_, but my
husband and brother had been here in 1803j and erected a log house
for us. Bears, wildcats, wolves and deer were very numerous. We
saw many Indians, as this was a hunting place of theirs. The Indians
did not trouble us but were very kind. But there was one thing that
made me afraid of them: My husband had parted two Indians who were
quarreling in Geneseo and had hit an Indian with a stick. The Indians
were afraid that he would die and wanted my husband, but Capt. Jones
told them that if the Indian died, the "Little Carpenter", as they
called him, would pay them $10. That ended it for the Indian got
well.
The year we came I gave birth to a son who was the first male
child born in Warsaw. He was born on the 1st of September, l80lj., and
lives with me now. They then went to Geneseo and. Attica for doctors.
My memory is very good; the old events are more fresh than the
recent ones. I was out milking one day and. I saw something darting
among the cornstalks. I put away my pail and caught it around the
neck; it was a little fawn.
The woods were very thick when we came. There was but threefourths
of an acre cleared near where Buxton's Wagon Shop now stands
(Baptist Church area). My husband was to pay for his land by erecting
a saw mill for Judge Webster. He built it in l8ol|_-5. It was
the first mill in what is now Wyoming County. Our house had but one
room and the work for the mill was all done there. I used to go
after our cow, and one night I lost my way in the woods. The wolves
were crying around me, but I at last got safely home. My husband
and two brothers used to go to Geneseo to work, leaving me all alone
with my child. They came home once in two weeks. When they got to
the head of the valley, three miles away, they all shouted loudly
and then I knew they were coming.
All of the letters that came here used to be directed to "Batavia,
No. 9, First Range". When my husband, took up the land there was not
a tree cleared on it. I have always taken care of my house since
180!}., and do so now, at ninety. I take a great deal of interest in
reading; I have read the Bible through five times and am almost
through the sixth. I read the newspaper and like to know what is
going on.