By C. Kihm Richardson Walking from Strykersville ... - Fulton History

PAGE 96 APRIL 1978
Thoughts on Pioneer Living (continued)
one reservation to another at will to hunt and fish.
This treaty permitted the Indians to visit their
cousins without paying border fees.
In this early period^ if an Indian happened to
be enroute to another reservation and was stranded
by darkness, he could pull the latch string
and enter the log cabin and lie down next to the
banked fireplace as the settler slept. Of course
the Indian stayed for breakfast. We have the story
that one Indian did not wait for breakfast. He
started to lift the stewpot, whereupon the pioneer
matron grabbed her butcher knife and made the
Indian sit down and wait his turn.
My forebear in Hume started to erect a frame
house. He hired two Indians from the Caneadea
Reservation to help raise the frame. After the
raising, the settler offered cash for their help.
The Indians refused. No! No! The Indian plucked
at Aaron's wedding shirt. So Aaron gave them his
two shirts, and the Indians danced with glee.
THE "IMMORTAL" MARY
Finally, we have the story of the most famous
pioneer woman of our area, Mary Jemison, from
the pen of Dr. James Seaver. Mary's life was one
long recital of hardships, and she always lived
close to the land. With her Scotch-Irish background,
she had the foresight, when the 1798treaty
was being negotiated, to demand that her land
(the Gardeau Reservation) was to include all of her
"potato patches."
Mary was a diligent farmer. Along the "Grand
Canyon of the East," after the spring flood had
run off, Mary and the squaws went down to the
damp ground along the river to plant their crops.
No iron hoes - with crooked sticks they punched
holes in the soft ground, dropped in the seeds
and closed the hole with their heels. These garden
spots extended here and there along the river, and
when the reservation was surveyed these potato
patches extended in places for twenty miles.
The canyon being 600 feet deep, Mary's
patches escaped the killing frosts of the "year
without a summer." The spring following, (1817),
my great grandfather, Obed Thornton, and others,
were glad to walk for miles to buy her seeds. Her
thrift and foresight saved many from starvation
that year.
Many episodes regarding the work of pioneer
women must necessarily have escaped recorded
history for lack of a contemporary reporter.
From these fragments that have been handed
down to us, however, we must conclude that
those who survived were a hardy breed, and
have left us a goodly heritage.
PHOTO CREDITS
Front page: courtesy of Java Historical Society
Page 89: courtesy of C. Kihm Richardson
Page 95: courtesy of Java Historical Society and
Bonnie Sheer
Page 101: courtesy of Harry Douglass
MILESTONES
L. Erwood Kelly, Perry supervisor and Wyoming
County Board Chairman, was elected fourth vicepresident
of the State Association of Towns at
their annual meeting in February. He was the only
Western New York official elected to office at this
meeting. In January, Mr. Kelly started serving his
eleventh term as chairman of the County Board of
Supervisors. Congratulations, "Woody!"
Miss Gertrude Copsey, a charter member of Attica
Historical Society, celebrated her ninety-ninth
birthday quietly at the home of Rev. and Mrs.
Addison Conrad in Attica in February. She came
to this country from Lowestoft, England at the age
of three. She had her own dressmaking shop in
Attica, where she was known for her "fine" work;
later, she switched to a career as librarian at
Stevens Memorial Library until her retirement
at the age of eighty-eight.
A 32,000 acre tract including all of the town of
Bennington and parts of Attica, Sheldon and Orangeville,
has received tenative approval for designation
as Wyoming County's fourth agricultural district.
It has been described as some of the best
agricultural land in Western New York and particularly
suited to dairy farming. The area will
include 122 farms. Wyoming County's three other
agricultural districts include about 72,500 acres.
According to the Federal Environmental Protection
Agency, the results of a recent study shows
that Wyoming County stands alone among 10
Western New York counties for clean air. The
other counties, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua,
Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Niagara, Orleans and
Steuben under study showed air containing more
than the minimum amount of pollutants.
The Arcade Area Chamber of Commerce gave
Wyoming County Republican Chairman Robert Bentley
the "Citizen of the Year Award" at their
February meeting. He was honored "in recognition
of his long years of service to the community
in government, business and social affairs." His
former boss, State Senator Majority Leader Warren
Anderson presented Mr. Bentley with the
stool on which Bentley had sat in the State Senate
Chambers behind the senators, for whom he had
been legal counsel for 30 years. Bentley began
his law practice in Arcade in 1944 and has been
county Republican chairman for 15 years. He became
legal counsel in Albany in 1947 for state
Senator Austin W. Erwin.