History - Marion
Marion Markers are dedicated: July 4, 1934
The ceremony of dedicating the five historic markers recently placed in Marion village, under the auspices of the Marion members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, took place Wednesday afternoon, July 4, in front of the First National Bank. Miss Mira Crane had charge of the program, which was as follows:
Marker for Old Post Road from Canandaigua to Pultneyville and Sodus Road - Mrs. C. Roy Curtis. Marker in front of C. Cattieu house on Palmyra St., marking site of first tog cabin - Medora Westfall. Tablet on Mill St., marking site of first tavern - Catherine Westfall. Tablet near home of M.J. Merson on Palmyra St., marking the home built by Thomas Youngs in 1830, station of 'Underground Railway' - Dr. Mary Young. Tablet marking site of Marion village, in front of First National Bank - Mrs. S.B. Curtis. Presentation of tablets to town - Miss Mira Crane. Acceptance for Town Board - Dr. Arthur Besemer. Reading of poem on 'The Pioneer' - Mrs. O.D. Crane. The text of the various speakers follows:
Marion Settled in 1795-6
The township is nearly square, covering an area of 17,391 acres. Prior to 1810 the Upper Corners was the most important part of the village and for a number of years held its place as equal to the Lower Corners.
In 1825 there were at the Upper Corners, about ten homes and in Marion village eleven houses, seven on the east side of the street and four on the west side of the Main Street.
At the Upper Corners there was a physician, a blacksmith shop, a small cabinet shop. At Marion village, a tavern and a store, a grist mill, ashery, distillery school, blacksmith shop and a post office.
The first marriage in the town was that of Elizabeth Howell and David Sherman in 1796.
Corn and grain were the first crops grown, but early in the history of the town began the growing of fruit, especially apples. John Smith, came from New Jersey in 1807, bringing apple seeds and soon started a nursery.
The first annual town meeting was held April 4, 1826. The following officers were elected: Supervisor Seth Eddy, Town Clerk - Samuel Moore, Assessors - Isaac R. Sanford, David Eddy and Thomas Lakey, Collector - Samuel Ball, Overseers of the Poor - Samuel Delano and Joseph Caldwell, Highway Commissioners Reuben Adams, Peter Eddy and Benjamin Mason, Constables - Samuel Ball and Jeremiah Angell, Commissioners of Common Schools Jos. Caldwell, Thomas Lakey and Samuel Moore, Inspectors of Common Schools - Jesse Mason, Homer Adams and James Smith.
SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE
It is a great pleasure to have the honor of accepting this gift for the Town Board of these five markers, which have been erected and which commemorate important events in history of this community. They will not only prove of interest to passerby, but will prove an education to the youth of our town. In behalf of the Town Board I wish to express the thanks of the citizens of Marion to Miss Crane and her committee for their part in the selection and erection of the five markers.
OLD ROAD
In the obscure background of the history of Marion we find the Indians following their paths through the forests,
One of these trails went from Seneca Lake to Lake Ontario. The path from the present site of Geneva, through Canandaigua, Palmyra and Marion to Pultneyville:
Our first road builder, Captain Williamson, followed this old Indian trail and our first highway came into Marion from Canandaigua in 1794.
This road went through Marion to the Upper Corners, passing between the homes of Roy Curtis and Abram Ressue, and then eastward to the Wayne Witherden farm, past the Sidney Lookup farm to East Williamson.
This was called the Sodus Road. The Indian trail from Marion Upper Corners to Pultneyville was enlarged very soon for a road.
Over this road came many of our early settlers and by 1810 the Upper Corners had more settlers than the Lower Corners.
In 1830 it had a tavern and a distillery, now the Abram Ressue home, a doctor's home and office on the site of the Roy Curtis home, a saw mill run by ox power, on the hill above the Marinus Moose home, a blacksmith shop, now the Henry Allen home, a grocery store, now the Glenn Burden home, a cemetery on the top of the hill and ten other houses. These were on the Indian trail.
Over this road was carried the mail on horseback. The letters and papers carefully read, brought to the early settlers news from the outside world.
We, the Marion members of Colonel William Prescott Chapter, D.A.R., have placed a marker at Upper Corners to remind all who pass, that once this same trail was trodden by the stately Indian as he followed the trail from Seneca Lake and Canandaigua Lake to Lake Ontario.
FIRST LOG HOME BUILT IN MARION
The tablet on Palmyra Street, in front of the double house now owned by C. Cattieu, marks the site of the first home in Marion, a log cabin, built by Henry Lovell.
Henry Lovell probably came from Rhode Island or Massachusetts, as did most of the early settlers. He was accompanied by his wife, though early historians did not consider that fact worthy of mention. He probably procured the title to the land now occupied to the south and west portions of Marion from the land office at Geneva.
Erase from your mind, if possible, the present well-paved street, lined with pleasant homes, and picture in its place a dense forest, through which ran a stream, much larger than the present creek, and you will have an idea of the site which Henry Lovell chose for his home.
Listen to the sound of his axe as he fells the trees, making a clearing, and procuring logs for his cabin.
The house was built of logs on which the bark was left. The floor was of dirt. In it was built a Dutch fireplace and a log chimney. Around it bears roamed and the howl of the wolf could be heard all night. Deer were very abundant in the forest and history says Lovell was a skillful hunter and killed thirty deer in one day. Evidently the family did not lack for food. In this rude cabin was born the first white child in the town. The infant died in a few weeks and the tiny form was laid beneath a giant maple on a knoll behind the cabin.
David Powell and wife, who also came to this locality in 1795, assisted in the burial of the baby. Little Betsy Lovell, a second daughter, was the second child born in the town.
As the mother went about her work, caring for her child and cooking for her family in a large kettle hung on a crane in the fireplace, or baking Indian loaf under coals drawn out on the hearth, inquisitive deer thrust their noses through the window openings. A watch had to be kept that the children, when a little older, did not stray into the forest, to be snatched by a bear, as was often the fate of the settler's pigs.
Just how long the Lovells lived in Marion is unknown. We are told they went west in the early days. The present house on the site of the log cabin is over 100 years old.
SITE OF THE FIRST TAVERN
Practically nothing is know about the owner of the tavern, which was located on the Pulver lot at the intersection of Mill and Main Streets. It is said to have been managed by a widow named Styles, who was also versed in the use of herbs, and was in demand as a doctor.
The tavern was an important institution in those days for wayfarers or travelers, and as such was considered worthy of a marker by the residents of this vicinity.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
By Mary Young
The former Youngs homestead, located on Main Street at the south end of Marion village, was built by Thomas Youngs, who came from Pennsylvania in 1803. He bought 224 acres of partially improved land, situated on the Palmyra-Marion Road. Like all of the land in Marion and the surrounding towns extending northward to Lake Ontario, his farm originally was a part of the Phelps-Gorham Purchase, a large tract which the King of England once sold to two of his subjects, who hoped to resell it at a profit to permanent settlers.
In 1809 Thomas Youngs married and set up housekeeping in a log cabin which he built on the eastern border of his land. It stood slightly west of the present home of Thomas F. Youngs, who now carries on the family name. The remains of the cellar of this cabin were still visible within the memory of descendants of the family now living.
In the early days taxes were low and living conditions simple, so a thrifty, industrious man was able to provide for a family and at the same time get ahead financially. In the course of time, Thomas Youngs was able to move to a modest frame house, which he built a little to the south of the cabin. To the front door of the new home he attached the large hand-wrought iron latch which had graced his log cabin door. This latch, which was made in the forge of a local blacksmith, still remains attached to the door where its owner placed it many years ago.
As the family fortune improved, the frame of the house was enlarged by the addition of an upright structure to the south, which became the main part of the house. Meanwhile the earlier frame building came to be known as the northwing. The construction of the upper portion of the house was a labor of months. It was not a contract job. The carpenters were paid day wages and boarded in with the family while the work was in progress. Every bit of wood used in construction, except the window sashes, was supplied from trees felled on the place.
When, in 1832, the work was completed (except for the west wing, which was added some years later) the house looked very much as it does now, a pleasing specimen of Georgian colonial architecture, with white clapboard sides, green shutters and an ornamental doorway. It was a type of house very common in New York and the New England states in early times and still popular even with trained architects.
In 1830 slavery was a live issue throughout the country, but not so live as twenty years later. The northern states had laws prohibiting slavery within their boundaries. But the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 virtually nullified these laws by permitting slaveholders to enter non-slave states to capture runaway slaves and forbidding citizens to give assistance to fugitive slaves within their borders. Most northerners regarded slavery as morally wrong and denied the right of Congress to pass a law compelling them to acquiesce in a system of which they did not approve. The more outspoken of those feeling in this way in time came to be know as Abolitionists.
The only way for a fugitive slave to gain permanent freedom was to escape to foreign soil. The Abolitionist secretly helped many fugitives to escape to Canada by means of what was popularly known as the 'Underground Railroad.'
This railroad was unique in that it had stations but neither track nor trains. Traveling was done at night and the passengers were all Negroes. The stations were the homes of friendly white people who gave temporary food and shelter to runaway slaves and helped them to reach the next stopping place in safety.
In this locality fugitive slaves made their way northward through Pennsylvania to Farmington, N.Y., where there was an Underground Railroad station. From there they were secretly transferred under cover of night to the Youngs home in Marion. Here they were secreted in the low ceilinged upstairs chamber in the north wing of the house, which at that time had no windows. After nightfall they were transported, behind drawn curtains, in the family carry-all along the Marion road to the home of Griffith Cooper (now Milhan house) a short distance south of Williamson. He in turn conveyed them in safety to the Cuyler house in Pultneyville, where they hid in secret passages underground until the sailing of Captain Troop's steamer.
When the boat was about to leave, Mr. Cuyler would say to the captain, 'I have some passengers for you.' 'My boat runs for passengers,' was Captain Troop's invariable reply. As the gangplank was being drawn, in the fugitives would rush aboard and hide in the piles of fuel wood on deck, until the boat had left Charlotte, in the distance. Then the danger was past and they felt assured of reaching Canada in safety and gaining their freedom.
The men and women who conducted the Underground Railroad were lawbreakers. If proven guilty, they might have been severely punished. Doubtless, near the Mason and Dixon line they ran considerable risk in their efforts to help fugitive slaves. In Marion, the danger of punishment was not so great, because public sympathy generally was with those who were trying to help the slaves. But had it been otherwise, in all likelihood the Youngs home still would have opened its doors to the fugitives, for Thomas Youngs' wife, Phebe Durfee, was a woman of determination with a Friends' broadmindedness and spirit of independence. Her Quaker training would have made her intolerant of slavery with its attendant evils. And her husband and children shared her views.
PRESENTATION OF TABLETS
By Miss Crane
I am glad that so many are interested to come to this simple ceremony. You have no doubt all noticed the five new road markers recently erected. Perhaps it should be explained that at the meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution, held in Marion in 1933, it was stated that state funds were available for the purpose of marking historical spots, or trails, and that these could be had upon application by any group or organization.
This seemed too good an opportunity to lose, and application was soon made to the State Department. When nothing had been heard all winter from that request we were much surprised and pleased to know that the markers were actually here.
It seemed only fitting that some ceremony of recognition be held and we have chosen to include all of the markers in one program at this marker.
It has been explained that these historic markers have been erected by the state, so we as a group claim no right or ownership in them, merely responsibility of the selection of the sites and the erections.
Very much of our education in schools and beyond is received objectively. We all appreciate the fact that such markers placed along the public roads add greatly to our interest in any part of the state through which we pass. So we believe that as members of the community, we should be familiar with some of the facts pertaining to the history of its early days.
We feel that the markers are an honor to our town, and hope they may be a means of teaching and perpetuating some of its early history. It is a pleasure and privilege to transfer to the town of Marion any authority or responsibility that our group may have in their erection, and we dedicate them to memory of the struggling pioneers of those days.
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