Early History of The Town of Sheridan,
New York
In the summer of 2004, the Town of Sheridan celebrated the
200th anniversary of its first recorded settlement. In honor of
the occasion,
the historical society created an exhibit about frontier Sheridan
and published a special 20-page edition of the society’s newsletter.
The articles that follow have been excerpted from this “Bicentennial
Commemorative Edition” of the newsletter. Written by members
of the society’s Research Committee, they chronicle the “frontier” period
of Sheridan’s history, leading to the official incorporation
of the town in 1827.
Historical Society Trustee Edwin Hamlet (driving the tractor) graciously
takes his hat off as he greets onlookers gathered at Sheridan Center
for the Bicentennial Parade in 2004. Mr. Hamlet and his granddaughters
(seated on the float) had the honor of leading the parade.
Paine’s Road and the First Recorded Settlement
By Traci Langworthy
In 1802, men working under General Paine
for the state of Connecticut cleared a rough wagon road along the
low gravel ridge that U.S. Route
20 follows through Sheridan, New York today. First traversed by Native
Americans in prehistoric times, the route in 1802 marked the way
to Connecticut’s “Western Reserve” in present-day
Ohio, where the Treaty of Greenville had recently opened new land
for settlement. Many travelers would use the path in years to come.
But Paine’s Road also served newcomers who made their homes “out
West” in present-day Sheridan. It was not long before they
arrived. Nor was it long before the town started to take shape, out
of the forest they turned into farmland.
Erected in 1904, Sheridan’s “First Settlement” marker
is located on the north side of U.S. Route 20, near Walnut
Road. |
In
the summer of 1803, Francis Webber of Monson, Mass., supposedly came
to the area on a hunting expedition and set up camp for several
weeks under a balsam tree on Paine’s Road, in the vicinity
of the commemorative stone on the Collins property today. As the
story goes, his favorable impressions convinced him and his extended
family to move here. On August 30, 1804, Francis Webber, William
Webber and Hezadiah Stebbins made the first purchases of land in
Township 6, Range 11 (as most of the land in Sheridan was surveyed
by the Holland Land Company). Francis “articled,” or
contracted to purchase, 214 acres in the west part of Holland Land
Company Lot 17, while Hezadiah articled 108 acres in the east part
of the same lot. William Webber contracted for land in adjacent
Lot 27.
Both from Monson, the Webber and Stebbins families were connected
by marriage. Little genealogical information has been found about
the Webbers. But Stebbins family records confirm the two families’ close
ties to one another. Hezadiah Stebbins was a veteran of the Revolutionary
War. His daughter, Roxey, married Jonathan Webber, who was likely
a son or nephew to Francis. Meanwhile, Asenath Webber, likely Francis’ daughter,
was the first wife of Hezadiah’s son, Thomas.
While these families were the first documented residents of Sheridan,
they were not alone in their adventure. Other settlers purchased
land here soon afterward, usually offering only one or two dollars
as a downpayment. Most came from New England and eastern New York,
making the long journey by ox sled before the snow had melted in
the early spring. Many found traces of “ancient” residents’ lives
as they felled trees and tilled fields.
Native Americans and “Ancient Fortifications”
By Traci Langworthy
By the time the earliest settlers purchased land in 1804, disease,
warfare, and treaty had removed nearly all the Native Americans who
had once lived in and around Sheridan. Most of the Seneca Indians
remaining in the area lived on the Cattaraugus Reservation, in accordance
with the Treaty of Big Tree signed in 1797.
As negotiated by Seneca leaders and a representative of the official
purchaser, Robert Morris, the 1797 treaty ended Native American title
to all but about 200,000 acres of land west of the Genesee River.
Soon after the negotiations ended in modern-day Geneseo, Joseph Ellicott,
who was in charge of surveying the land for the Holland Land Company,
marked out the boundaries of several plots “reserved” for
the Indians. His original map of these holdings included the present-day
Cattaraugus Reservation, as well as additional land starting one
mile west of Cattaraugus Creek and following along the lakeshore,
through Sheridan, to land on Canadaway Creek.
Although an 1802 treaty took away the additional land, the place
of Native Americans in Sheridan’s history is unmistakable – as
many soon settlers discovered. Numerous “arrowheads” and
other prehistoric “relics” surfaced as farmers plowed
their fields in the 1800s. The remnants of history that attracted
the most attention, however, were raised “mounds” of
earth enclosing large areas of land. Judging from the age of the
trees growing on their slopes, many of these curiosities were believed
to have been built at least a few hundred years ago.
Writing in 1859 about the “Ancient Monuments in Western New
York,” civil engineer T. Apoleon Cheney described two circular “fortifications” in
the town of Sheridan. One, located south of Sheridan Center on Holland
Land Company Lot 35, was “the most extensive” he had
seen in his studies, with a diameter of 865 feet. “The ancient
walls of this earth work have now nearly crumbled in ruin, and soon
will be forever effaced,” he wrote. Still, about one-third
of its circumference rose about 2 feet high, hinting at a circle
enclosing more than 13 acres of land.
This sketch of the “Sheridan Ring” on Holland Land
Company Lot No. 35 was published in 1900 by the New York State
Museum and is based on an 1859 drawing by T. Apoleon Cheney.
The darkened third of the circle was still about 2 feet high
in Cheney’s time. |
Through the years, graves, “pits” and various artifacts
also were found in the vicinity of the Lot 35 ring. In 1870, three
members of the Normal School faculty in Fredonia excavated a 4-foot
square section of the supposed burial ground on the site. An article
about their efforts published in the Fredonia Censor on June 1, 1870,
noted the same spot “had been previously opened several times
and remains removed,” leading to one estimate that greater
than 100 men, women and children were interred there. The Fredonia
men exhumed “12 to 15 skulls.” A few years later, in
1875, Indian Agent Daniel Sherman supposedly exhumed more bones
and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution.
Although no burials were mentioned, various “relics” also
were found within a smaller circular enclosure on Lot 67 in West
Sheridan. Here, according to a 1904 article written by George McLaury,
the “circular embankment” extended across the Main Road
and enclosed “a space about 20 rods across, with an eastern
elongation extending to a small creek.”
Although the Sheridan sites offered rich examples for study, “ancient” earthworks
in other nearby towns also attracted the attention of 1800s investigators.
Obed Edson, a prominent local historian, documented more than 30
total “entrenchments” in Chautauqua County. At least
a half dozen examples were identified along the Lake Erie shore,
while many more were located along Cassadaga Creek and in present-day
Ellington.
As various scholars have attempted to interpret the sites in question,
artifacts and other features found in the midst of earthworks have
provided helpful context. Still, even with advances made in the
field, today’s archaeologists have more questions than answers about
who built the “mounds” and why. Many continue to believe
the earthworks are remnants of defensive fortifications that surrounded
villages. The settlements might have been protected by wooden palisades,
with the posts put in the ground atop the raised earth. However,
considering the burials found at some sites, other scholars think
the earthworks served ceremonial purposes and do not necessarily
mark the sites of villages. For example, the traditional “Feast
of the Dead” among Huron Indians involved the reburial of
deceased loved ones in communal graves. Originally, mounds were
constructed
above these graves and rings of posts erected around the mounds.
As suggested by Lynne P. Sullivan of the New York State Museum,
who assisted with a recent new study of a site called “Dewey Knoll” in
Ripley, the disagreements among experts might be fueled by the
sheer complexity of the history in this geographic region. In addition
to being bounded by Lake Erie, Western New York also is situated
along the continental divide between lands eventually drained by
either the Mississippi or St. Lawrence rivers. Not surprisingly
then,
peoples living in this area many years ago were influenced by different
trading partners to the east and the west.
Taverns and the Frontier Community
By Traci Langworthy & Virginia T. Becker
Sheridan’s
location on the Lake Erie corridor routed numerous travelers through
the frontier settlement in the early 1800s. The
old Indian trail that General Paine widened in 1802 came to be called
the Erie Road, and served as a main highway to the Northwest Territory.
Early on, families moving to modern-day Ohio (then owned by Connecticut)
passed through Sheridan with their sleds or wagons, many following
alongside their belongings on foot or horseback. As necessary, they
could find food, drink, or lodging at a number of local homes that
served as inns.
Once established, the inns, or taverns, of early Sheridan also served
surrounding residents. Even small, necessary trips within modern-day
Western New York could prove long and worrisome, with stretches of “wilderness” and
barely-passable roads. But more than “stop-off” points
for people passing through, taverns could be destinations in and
of themselves. Some became frontier centers of community, offering
otherwise isolated neighbors places to meet, share news, and even
vote. Through the years, a handful of different taverns in town doubled
as post offices.
The Webber, Holmes, and Griswold families likely operated the three
earliest taverns at their homes in the eastern, western and central
parts of town, respectively. As the first residents of their stretch
of Paine’s Road, they probably assisted other newcomers, as
well as passing travelers. Little is known of the Francis Webber
household, but the establishments of Orsamus Holmes and William Griswold
became focal points of community activity.
After purchasing land in 1805, Orsamus Holmes had opened his tavern
as early as 1806, when the inn was recorded as the site of the first
post office in town (and only the second post office in Chautauqua
County). A Revolutionary War veteran who had been taken prisoner
twice and imprisoned in Quebec by the British, Holmes might have
shared stories with his guests about the harrowing days he spent
in the wilderness of Lower Canada, after making his escape from the
British. On the heels of postal delivery, the Holmes tavern also
offered area residents another early service. In 1807, men who were
eligible to vote cast their ballots for state governor in the first
election to be canvassed in present-day Chautauqua County. Polling
continued over the course of three days in April, with the first
day held in what is now Bemus Point, the second in Westfield, and
the third day split between Hezekiah Barker’s house in Fredonia
and Holmes’ house in Sheridan. In the same year, Rev. John
Spencer, a Congregational missionary, led the first religious meeting
in Sheridan at the Holmes place, as well.
The original portion of the old Griswold is still standing
on the Hamlet farm, near the barn on the east side of Center
Road.
|
The
Griswold tavern was located in the Center along Paine’s
Road, on what is now the Hamlet farm. Brothers Gerard and William
Griswold came to the area in 1805, at which time Gerard purchased
the Lot 35 site. They had two log cabins erected by 1811 when others
of their family arrived. It is believed that William may have run
the tavern with help from his family. Gerard articled part of the
lot to him and moved to Ohio about 1815. An original portion of the
building is still standing near the barn on the east side of Center
Road. According to Edwin Hamlet, the side facing Center Road would
have been the front, though the door is no longer visible. The structure
originally was situated between and to the south of the present-day
houses on the property, and served as both a tavern and the family
dwelling.
Later in the frontier period, increasing stagecoach travel brought
new customers. In the peak years of business, as many as seven
taverns were in operation in Sheridan at one time. All the establishments
closed by 1852, when the local stages stopped running.
“Circuit Riders” and the Earliest Churches
By Virginia T. Becker
In the early 1800s, “circuit riders” provided much of
the spiritual support for settlements in the “frontier.” The
best known early circuit rider in Chautauqua County was Rev. John
Spencer, who made present-day Sheridan his home. The Missionary Society
of Connecticut employed him as a missionary on the Holland Purchase.
He went from site to site throughout Western New York, preaching
to as many families as would assemble, and formed many Congregational
and Presbyterian churches during his pastorate. Among them were the
First Presbyterian churches of Pomfret (1810), Kiantone (1815), Ellicott
(1816) and Portland (1818). Over the course of 20 years, he also
inspired the formation of 13 religious societies, with one of the
earliest forming in his Sheridan neighborhood.
A Revolutionary War veteran, Rev. Spencer came to Sheridan in 1807.
He is credited with conducting the town’s first religious meeting
in 1807 at the home of Orsamus Holmes. On Nov. 18, 1809, his followers
officially organized a Congregational society. The eight founding
members were Orsamus Holmes, Elisha Gray, Alanson Holmes, Joel Lee,
Ruth Holmes, Deborah Lee, Rebecca Spencer and Olive Holmes. He owned
a farm on the corner of Newell Road and modern-day Route 20, and
donated property for the formation of the burial ground which is
now the West Sheridan Cemetery. He was laid to rest there in 1826.
Over the years, three locations were chosen for a Presbyterian house
of worship, none of which serve that purpose today. One structure
was built at Newell’s Corners in 1822 and was sold for a barn
and moved in 1849. Another was started at the Center in 1828, never
finished, and subsequently torn down. Finally, in 1832 a church building
was erected at the Center and was in continuous use until 1870. Today,
this building houses The Corner Snack Bar and post office.
Accounts based on Gregg’s “History of Methodism within
the bounds of the Erie Annual Conference” relate the story
of Rev. George Lane who came to the area to preach to members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church who had settled here. As the story
goes, he set out from Buffalo on a blustery day in the winter of
1808-1809. Along his journey, he came upon Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Gould
who were returning home from a trip to Rochester. The weather was
most difficult and travel limited. All three ended up leaving their
sleighs behind and riding the horses as far as Mack’s tavern
(in present-day Irving, New York) where they stayed for the night.
The next day, they made their way to the Gould’s cabin, where
Rev. Lane stayed on for a few days to preach.
Rev. Lane is credited in forming the first Methodist Episcopal Society
in Chautauqua County at the home of Stephen Bush in Sheridan on Jan.
23, 1809. Mr. and Mrs. Gould, Stephen Bush, Elijah Risley, and two
others unrecorded, were its first members. Meetings were then held
on a weekly basis at the Gould and Bush homes. When Seth Ensign and
Sally Gould were married in 1817, their home became the place for
worship. Later on, as in many communities across the country, a schoolhouse
was used as a meetinghouse. In the 1830s, worshippers constructed
a wood-frame church on land leased to them by William Griswold. Periodically,
this edifice underwent repairs and additions. In 1927, the old church
was moved back and the new church was erected. The congregation of
United Methodist Church of Sheridan still worships there today.
Foundations for the Future: The First Schools
By Virginia T. Becker
Many early settlers had some formal education,
but others traced their knowledge and skills to home schooling. Someone
in the family – a
mother, father, or older sibling – would see to it that the
children had at least some skill in arithmetic, reading, and writing.
The degree of learning was dependent upon how much the instructor
knew of these subjects and his or her ability to direct the learner
to other resources.
As settlements began to grow and prosper, the need for regular schools
was addressed. Records prior to the establishment of the Town of
Sheridan are not in abundance. However, it is evident that several
schools existed prior to 1827.
The first schoolhouse in Sheridan was reportedly kept by William
Griswold in his house at the Center in the winter of 1807-1808. The
home would have been situated somewhere on Lot 35 of the Holland
Land Company, which is currently Hamlet Farm. William Griswold’s
obituary credits him as being the first schoolteacher in Chautauqua
County.
In June of 1812, while the United States Congress was passing an
act that declared war with England, the New York State legislature
passed an act that established common schools and divided the state
into school districts. People living in the school district could
decide upon issues relating to the education of their children. By
1814, the common school law went into effect and “money was
apportioned and paid out by the Supervisors, Commissioners, and Inspectors
of the town, and the Trustees of the district.”
The “Better Establishment of Common Schools Act” of the
State of New York set the wheels in motion for many schools already
in existence. One such example was Sheridan School No. 7, which was
School District No. 5 of Pomfret before the establishment of Sheridan.
An entry in the District No. 5 record book dated June 7, 1816 states
that the trustees of the school petitioned the Commissioners of Common
Schools to become a duly authorized school site. The petitioners
went on to say “that they have for a great number of years
(when compared with the recent settlement of the country) and still
do keep up, and maintain a school both summer and winter at the four
corners of the Roads near the dwelling House of Mr. Samuel Newell’s
~ and that they have built and do keep in repair a suitable and convenient
House for the same, at which place your petitioners pray the Board
to cause a site for a school house to be Established according to
Law.”
Obviously, the founders of this school were forward thinkers in establishing
it so early. They were also wise to have it recognized by the state.
With their petition granted, their accreditation would make them
eligible for financial support from the state. Until this law, the
residents of the school district provided the sole source of funding.
According to Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick, early schoolhouses in New
York were often “log structures hastily run up, cold, illy
lighted, poorly heated with fireplaces, and furnished with rough
benches for seats….” There were no desks. Later on, during
what was dubbed by Phin M. Miner as “the little red schoolhouse
period” (from 1825 into the 1900s), schools were usually a
wood-framed building and had more convenient furnishings.
A teacher might be any age, man or woman. Early on, male teachers
may have had more years of schooling than female teachers. A young
woman of that time might have received her education at a similar
school setting as the one in which she was teaching. Eventually,
duly certified teachers were necessary to receive state funding for
the school district.
Squire White, who was reportedly the first college graduate to be
a teacher in Chautauqua County, taught at the school near the intersection
of Roberts Road and Route 20 in Sheridan in the winter of 1808-1809.
His talents went beyond teaching, since he was, first and foremost,
a physician. In fact, he was the first licensed doctor in Chautauqua
County. This being the case, a unique agreement was landed upon with
School Trustees John Walker, Richard Douglass and William Gould.
Squire White would teach school with the understanding that lessons
could be interrupted and class dismissed should he be needed to use
his skills as a doctor. When he returned from a call, school would
again be in session.
The teacher often boarded with the families of the students in the
district. Additionally, a salary was agreed upon, though not always
paid in cash. Often the wage took the form of the local crop like
a bushel of corn or a pile of wood. The recipient could then use
the goods, or trade or sell them. One recounting tells of Miss Minerva
Willoughby who taught school in the Willoughby District in the summers
of 1817 and 1818. (The Willoughby school was on south Center Road
and eventually became Sheridan District No. 10.) Her salary was 50
cents a week and she was responsible for her own lodging. Money was
hard to come by then, so “she took her pay from a store in
Fredonia. She accepted a wheel-head, a pair of cards – for
preparing flax for spinning – and a bake-kettle.”
Formal education stressed the Three R’s – reading, ‘riting,
and ‘rithmetic. But spelling and geography were also staples
of the curriculum of the time. These subjects were taught to children
of all ages. One learned at the level at which one was able. Often,
children were needed to attend to chores on the homestead. Consequently,
non-graded classes were much more efficient and effective, since
attendance was sometimes sporadic.
School might be in session four to six months of the year. Boys usually
went more terms than girls. Girls had special lessons at home. A
girl needed to learn the skills necessary for running a household,
including cooking, cleaning, and sewing. She might also learn to
card, spin, and weave. By the age of 8 or 9 years old, a girl would
have practiced embroidery with her first sampler. It illustrated
the range of stitches she could sew. Samplers usually displayed the
alphabet, numbers, a date, an adage, the maker, and embellishments.
At the first annual town meeting in the Town of Sheridan on Tuesday,
May 8, 1827, the elected officers included Commissioners of Common
Schools Benjamin Brownell, Royal Teft, and Lyscom Mixer, and Inspectors
of Common Schools Elihu Mason, Nathaniel Gray, and Samuel Davis.
Between November 10, 1827 and April 3, 1829, the Commissioners of
Common Schools reconfigured and recorded 15 school districts as the
town settled in as a political entity. One-third of the district
schools listed during that time were shared with the towns of Pomfret,
Arkwright, Villenova, or Hanover.
At this first town meeting, the immediate items of business voted
upon would benefit its schools. Both concerned money. The first was
compensation of 75 cents per day for the services of the commissioners.
The second was to raise, by way of tax, twice the sum of money received
from the state for the support of the Common Schools during the current
year. The funding for the first year is not known, but the 1828-1829
amount for common schools in Sheridan was $87.61.
Records reveal that, through the years, as many as 17 school districts
received funds, although the town finally settled into 10 districts.
Gradually, the neighboring school districts of Forestville, Silver
Creek, Fredonia, and Dunkirk absorbed the district schools of Sheridan,
as the State of New York moved toward centralization. In 1960, Sheridan
District No. 6 was one of the last two one-room schoolhouses in Chautauqua
County to close. And with it went a significant unifying institution
for the Town of Sheridan.
Pioneer Industry: The Mills of Beaver Creek
By Mary Langworthy
When the settlers first arrived, they
had to do everything by hand, often with the help of oxen. They cleared
the land for their crops
and initially built crude log cabins to serve as temporary homes.
Many stacked and burned the timber they had cut to produce potash,
which could be sold. Before too long, of course, the hope was to
earn money from the crops growing in their fields and to build a
more comfortable frame house. Some of the most enterprising settlers
also earned their livings by building the mills that could grind
their neighbors’ grain and cut different sizes of planks for
houses and furniture. The streams that drained the hills to the south
soon powered a handful of busy mills.
Nearly 200 years ago, water downstream from the Beaver Creek
Falls (photographed above in 2004) fueled a saw mill and grist
mill operated by Haven Brigham.
Photograph by Traci Langworthy
|
The settlers who built the mills diverted water from creeks into
mill races. The mill race then directed the water to a large wheel
alongside the operation. In the case of a saw mill, the wheel powered
the saw that cut the logs into planks. The person who ran a saw
mill was called a miller or sawyer. Most early mills were family
affairs
that bustled with activity in the spring, when the streams gushed
toward the lake. In larger operations, extra men had to be hired.
Members of the Brigham family are credited with building several
early mills in the town of Sheridan. According to Holland Land
Company records, Jonathan Brigham came to present-day Sheridan
from Oneida
County and purchased land in 1809 on lots 54 and 64. Jonathan had
four sons: Stephen, Haven, Winsor and Edward. The three eldest
sons all settled in Sheridan, although Stephen is believed to have
come
a bit later, in 1816.
In 1810, Haven Brigham came to Sheridan with his new wife, Eunice,
from Augusta, N.Y. The newlyweds arrived with their oxen sled in
March, having traveled for four weeks in the middle of winter.
They bought land in the southern part of Lot 64 from Alanson Holmes,
who
had purchased the acreage in 1807.
When the Brighams arrived, they supposedly found a crude cabin
on site with no door or windows. Holmes is also believed to have
constructed
a “log grist mill” nearby on Beaver Creek, sometime between
1807 and 1810. Brigham either expanded this structure or constructed
a new one. In 1811, he is credited with establishing the first and
only grist mill in frontier Sheridan.
The grist mill was only one of Haven’s early business endeavors
on his property along Beaver Creek. A tanner by trade, he operated
the first tannery in the frontier settlement. He also built a whiskey
distillery, but reportedly closed it after a few years when temperance
supporters convinced him of the evils of liquor. Meanwhile, on the
west side of the creek, Haven and his younger brother, Winsor established
the first saw mill in town.
A carpenter by trade, Winsor came to Sheridan in 1810, the same
year as Haven. As the story goes, he brought a backpack with him
containing
50 pounds of carpenters’ tools, provisions, and clothing. Presumably,
he used some of these tools in helping his older brother build the
saw mill. Soon after it was finished, Winsor sold his interest to
Haven and went to Mayville, where his father had moved. Once Chautauqua
County was formed in 1811, he contracted to build the county’s
first courthouse. The building was finally finished in 1815, after
a delay caused by the War of 1812. Later, Winsor built a blacksmith
shop on Lot 54, and another saw mill on Scott’s Creek.
Winsor Brigham died in 1835 on board Capt. Simeon Fox’s ship
sailing from Detroit to Dunkirk. Due to bad weather, Fox could not
stop in Dunkirk and went on to Buffalo. According to a Fredonia Censor
notice published on July 29, 1835, Winsor died there during the night,
a victim of cholera.
Another of Sheridan’s early millrights was Joel Lee, who built
a saw mill with Haven Brigham in 1818 on Lot 49, near present-day
Route 5. Lee came to Sheridan from Sherburne, N.Y. in 1805, and soon
built the first frame house in town.
In all, at least 10 water-powered saw mills are believed to have
operated in Sheridan through the years. As technology changed,
three steam-powered saw mills served customers at a later date.
After technology introduced the railroad, Haven Brigham and his
neighbors near the Lake Road became part of that important history,
too. In
1836, Haven agreed to sell his property to railroad speculator
William Bucknor. But, when Bucknor failed to pay the balance of
the nearly
$10,000 purchase price, the property reverted back to Haven. He
eventually sold the farm to the Herrick brothers in 1857. At that
time, Haven
moved to Central Avenue in Fredonia. He died in 1868 at age 83.
Incorporation of the Town of Sheridan
Although the
families of Francis Webber, Hezediah Stebbins and other early landholders
had long since begun to make their homes in present-day
Sheridan, the community they had forged by the 1820s still did not
exist on paper. In the winter of 1827, a three-person committee from
the growing community traveled to Albany on a mission of much local
significance. Nathaniel Gray, John E. Griswold and Haven Brigham
lobbied state representatives to grant their home the legal status
of a township. Following their successful trip, the Town of Sheridan
was formed in April of that year by taking 32 lots from the Town
of Pomfret and 35 lots from the Town of Hanover. Mr. Gray proposed
the name of Sheridan, in honor of 18th century British poet and politician
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whom Gray supposedly admired. Of course,
the real work of forming a town came after the boundaries were designated
and the name chosen. How would this new town be governed and by whom?
These questions were left to the very first town meeting — the
minutes of which are presented below, as recorded in 1827 by the
first town clerk.
|
|
Nathaniel Gray |
John E. Griswold |
Images taken from Andrew
Young’s
History of Chautauqua County (1875) |
At the first annual Town Meeting in the town of Sheridan held pursuant
to the Act for the erection of said town at the house of Wm. Griswold,
Tuesday May 8th 1827.
Present: Lyscom Mixer, Justice of the Peace. John E. Griswold, Moderator.
The following persons were duly elected to the office for the current
year
… . viz.
Lyscom Mixer, Supervisor
Enoch Haskins, Town Clerk
Rhodolphus Simons, Collector
Jonathan S. Pattison and Otis Ensign, Overseers of the Poor
Haven Brigham, Otis Ensign, and Sheldon Stanley, Assessors
Nathanial Loomis, William Ensign, and John N. Gregg, Commissioners
of Highways
Rhodolphus Simons and Orlow Hart, Constables
Benjamin Brownell, Royal Teft, and Lyscom Mixer, Commissioners of
Common Schools
Elihu Mason, Nathaniel Gray, and Samuel Davis, Inspectors of Common
Schools
Voted [There is no indication of dissent.]
That Commissioners of Common Schools be allowed for services seventy
five cents per day
To raise by tax, for the support of Common Schools twice the sum
of money received from the State for the same purpose during the
current year.
That overseers of Highways chosen in the towns of Pomfret and Hanover
at their regular annual meetings held in their respective towns previous
to the reception of the “Act for the divisions of said towns” and
who now reside within the limits of the town of Sheridan, remain
as such in their respective Road Districts that shall not be otherwise
attend [sic] by our Commissioners.
That Each Overseer of highways be ex officio a Fence viewer and Poundkeeper
To raise the sum of Six dollars for the purchase of books for Record
and Ballot Boxes.
That, This meeting adjourn to the first Tuesday in April now next
at 10 o’clock A. M. at the home of William Griswold.
More information is available on these and other topics from Sheridan’s
early history in the “Bicentennial Commemorative Edition” of
the society’s newsletter, which also contains a complete bibliography
for all the featured articles.
|
