Van Kleeck's Memoirs
John
Van Kleeck's Story
(an acquaintance of Rev. John Griffing)
Surnames Mentioned: Van Kleeck, Howland, Van Wyck, Van Planck, Rawkin, Mosher, Haight, Nelson, Hildrup,
King, Van de Bogart, Borgart, Whiter, Wilcox, Bradley, Robinson, Bennett,
Banning, Rittenhouse, Beers, Sanford, Denniston, Smiley, Williams, Wall,
Jennings, Martin, Wilcox, Briggs, Miller, Wright, Dorn, Montgomery, Ward,
Marvin, Howard, Mosher, Manley, Ingersall, Ferris, Bingham, Tripp, Robinson,
Bradley, Bennett, Gould, Castle, Sackett, White, Kellogg, Curtis, McQuigg, Brige,
Gilmore, Peck, Brooks, Griffin(g), Towner
A History of South Danby, New York
My father, Lawrence Van Kleeck, came
out to this country from Duchess County (Fishkill) in 1804 (same time as Seneca
Howland) and took up land - the old Van Kleeck place on the hill. He then went
back to Duchess Co. and married and came back. I was born in 1805. My father's
land was on the Van Wyck and Vanplanck tract. Van Wyck owned 6000 acres and
Varplanck 5000 acres. My grandfather was a cripple from dumb palsy and Van Wyck
urged him to come out to settle here, but he refused. My father's brother
Cornelius Van Kleek came out soon after.
There had been a man in and chopped
a piece and built a forge back of Rawkin's house on the bank towards Mosher's
house before Haight came. His name, I think, was Smith; but he went off and left
it. Then came Haight and repaired the forge and built a little log house on the
little flat near by. Lawrence Van Kleeck moved into this when he first came back
with his wife. Haight took up the Robinson farm planted an orchard there. Next,
Old Nelson (David) came and settled on the Andrew Beers place. These two, Haight
and Nelson, were here when Lawrence Van Kleeck and Seneca Howland came out.
Seneca Howland took up the old
Howland (Charles and Williams and Hildrup place 300 acres) and built a log house
just east of the (north-east) south-west angle made by the Howland road joining
the road to Wilseyville. There had already been a man in and cut 3 acres
south-west of the Hildrup house before Van Kleeck and Howland came out; but he
had gone away and left it and it was all grown up to water beech when they came
in. There was a fine sugar bush west from Rankin house to the Van Kleeck line.
In June 1824 it was blown down by a tornado. Seneca Howland had a nursery just
below his log house near the creek; also another one just west of Rankin barn.
The trees for Charles and William Howland's orchard Seneca got from his father
in-law, Francis King on Ithaca Hill.
Settlements Made After Lawrence Van
Kleeck & Seneca Howland Came Out
Old Francis (Franz) Borgart (Van de
Bogart) took up 50 acres on Mike Handy's place. John Bogart took up 70 acres
just where Mike Handy lines and built the barn still standing there. John
Borgart got drunk and abused the old landlady at the Halfway House (Morg
Whiter's place in Wilseyville) and had to leave the place. He sold his land to
Frances Borgart, who lived in a log house near a peculiar ash tree just south
west of a butternut tree.
Then Old Jannie (or Yanie) Wilcox
bought 100 acres- the Myron Wilcox place-- where he built a house and lived and
died there.
Wakeman Bradley settled on the
Robinson farm where Haight had lived.
Aaron Bennett settled on the
Rittenhouse place.
Old John Manning, cousin to Lawrence
Van Kleeck; mother settled on Francis Howland place, north of Andrew Beers'; but
he went back to Duchess Co.
When I (John Van Kleeck) was quite a
boy, the families were settled as follows:
Zekiel Sanford on old Denniston
place near Zeb Smiley's.
Daniel Williams on Soloman Wall's
place (Taller Hill)
Isaac Jennings on Zeb Smiley's
place.
David Martin on Gaylord Wilcox
place.
Ebenezer Briggs on Bill Miller's
place. Martin and Briggs came to Seneca Howland to buy their land.
Zebulon Wright and Charles Wright
east of M.E. Church, one on each side of the road.
Orson Wright came soon after on
Jerry Dorn's place.
Ezekiel Montgomery, south of Miller
place next to Ebenezer Millers. He had two sons, William and Parmer.
William and Parmer Montogmery near
Ed Martin's farm.
Stanley O. Ward.
Charley I. Manning settled on his
place in April, 1823. The year before he had been all through western New York
nearly as far as Buffalo looking for a place to settle.
Old John Manning moved back here in
1824 was made agent in Seneca Howland's place.
Robert Marvin, in Oct. 1823 settled
on Steven Howard place, making the first clearing between Morg White's flat and
the field on the Howland farm just west of the Newground.
Jacob Mosher (cousin of Seneca
Howland) took up 50 acres on John Manley place when I was a boy. His wife died
in January 1829.
Ingersall took up where Lewis Ferris
lives.
Tobias, from Ulster Co., settled on
Seth Bingham place.
James Tripp (Seth Tripp's father)
and his brother Steven came in 1818 and settled where Old John Manning had had
50 acres.
(Francis Howland place?) They
chopped a fallow and had a big crop of wheat which they sold for 3 shillings a
bushel. They paid $1.00 per barrel for salt.
The first frame house was the one
now standing on the Robinson place. It was shingled on the outside. Built by
Wake Bradley.
The next frame house was the
Rittenhouse house built by Arron Bennett.
Old Joe Gould lived just below
Charles Wrights barn.
When Lawrence Van Kleeck came into
the country (1804) it was all wilderness on the east to the turnpike in
Wilseyville; on the north unbroken wood to the Lewis Curtis place where Old Dr.
Beers had settled; and on the south no clearing between Old Nelson's (Andrew
Beers place) and the flat in Spencer Creek, where Old Daniel Castle lived. Caleb
Sackett used to come up to visit from Candor way. Old Ezra Smith and his four
boys lived on the Morg White place.
There was a road from Lawrence Van
Kleeck's across the hill to Lyman Jones' which came out on the flat at Murdock
Station (north Candor on E.C. & N. near end of Dry Brook Road) known as the
Case Road. Before Van Kleeck came the road to Wilseyville cut out by men hired
by Van Wyck and also a road from Spencer to the turnpike (Spencer Springs
Road?).
The lower mill at Candor was the
nearest grist mill when I was a boy. When I was 12 years old, Seneca Howland
used to send his son Francis, 9 years old, to mill with me. I used to mill for
the three Van Kleeck families. The neighbors had no horse and used to get me to
go to mill for them, as we had a horse.
Franz Bogart was the first man to
have a two horse wagon. He had a team of horses. Wake Bradley had a two wheeled
cart. Seneca Howland and Lawrence Van Kleeck got a man named Calvin Kellogg to
make ------- the wood-work of a wagon and got Miles Mix, who lived near Lewis
Curtis to iron it for them They already had horses. Old Tobias, who lived on
Seth Bingham place, had a wagon and a span of horses. Both he and his wife
weighed over 200 pounds. He drove like Jehu and you could hear his wagon roar
for miles.
When I was 5 years old my folks when
back to Duchess Co. on a visit in the fall. The wolves bothered them a good deal
and had to be scared away by fire brands. My mother and I were often scared by
wolves at night when my father was away.
Bowerman and Bates, near Wilseyville,
were great hunters. They had a wolf-den up near Shindagen and so got bounty on
the cubs. There was always from 5 to 7 cubs to a wolf.
I remember that Graham from Honey
Pot used to shoot panthers.
There used to be deep snow and crust
in winter and so we caught deer easily, especially with help of black dog, Cuff,
part gray hound.
People went to Owego for trade.
David McQuigg was the first in Ithaca. The first man that ever paid cash for
grain in Ithaca were Plumb and Doolittle, from Maine. Wheat was 3 shillings per
bushel, salt $1.00 per barrel, butter, 6 pence per pound. There first that was
ever sold for trade was bought by Philetus and Perkins from Connecticut.
Caleb Nelson, Lawrence Van Kleeck
and Franz Bogart chopped on Old Dr. Beer's farm (Curtis' place) in June for a
peck of wheat a day.
Old Dr. Beers road the country as
physician as far as the Susquehanna River.
Seneca Howland, Hudson Jennings and
Benjamin Jennings were Justices of the Peace and the most prominent men in the
town. Old John Dean of Burdock Station (N. Candor) when a boy, was at Spencer
where Seneca Howland was holding Special Sessions. One of the Justices was Old
Squire Barker--"an old blubberhead"-. The boys pretended to fight in
the barroom and Old Barker rushed out and cried "I command the peace!"
They knocked Barker down and he called for Seneca who came out and promptly
stopped the row.
Old David Nelson was the man who
gave the name to "Taller Hill" because it was so wet and muddy.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
The first Methodist Episcopal
preachers roade on a circuit of 400 miles. Two men road the circuit. The first
were John Griffin and James Hall. Griffin remained two years. Each man got
around once in 4 weeks. Palmer
Roberts from near Ovid was one of the preachers. His horse was taken sick and he
left it with Cornelius Van Kleeck and walked the circuit twice. Roberts was a
wonderful sweet singer and used to sing while traveling his circuit. He preached
at Banby in the Roper house [where Jim Miller lives, 1917]. When I was 7 or 8
years old, Michael Brandon taught singing school. One of his songs was
"Arise My Love, My Fair One, And come away" etc.
Michael Brige was a great, broad man
with a mighty voice. Some of his hearers were sitting on a wash bench which
tipped over and went down. He roared out, "That's the way sinners go down
to hell!" Other preachers were Gilmore, Peck, Brooks, etc. Brooks
married Old Griffin's daughter. Another preacher Joseph Towner.
I was not more that 7 years old
when first preachers came. They preached in a house just above and 6 or 7 rods
north of the little run below Dimmock's house. The first season they also
preached at Tuttle's (Crispell's this side of Morg Whites. The South Danby
circuit embraced the head of Seneca Lake. Old Griffin had two days at home every
time he got around his circuit.
When the first prachers came, Old
Phineas Nelson's wife was the only Methodist in the place. My father and mother
were Dutch Reformed but at once joined the Methodists. Old Dearborn and wife,
Cornelius Van Kleeck and wife, and Jim Van Kleeck's wife also joined. In 1834
there was a revival in the Burch school house. Seventry-three were baptized in
one day. There was a little start before that among Old Howard's children, when
Francis Howland experienced religion.
Wells and Howland were traveling
preachers at the Smiley school house. Colburn and Hewitt kind o' rooted the
other two out. The Great Revival was in haying time and the converts were baptized
at Francis Howland's saw-mill.
EDUCATION
The first school house was a plank
school house on the flat-iron in front of Rankins' house. Catherine Demun was
the first teacher. I went there when I was 5 years old. I had to be driven by my
mother with a whip. The log-school-house was on the bank at foot of Cooper's
hill. The block school-house was near Ed Smileys. The first term of the plank
schoolhouse was when I was 5 years old. The next winter Aaron Bennett taught
there and continued to do so in winter until after the shingle schoolhouse was
built. Abby Bradley (lived on Robinson place) taught 2 or 3 summers and then got
married to Waterbury Smith.
End of Old John Van Kleeck's Narrative,
related by him to me in 1885.
-- A. C. Howland ["Arthur
Charles Howland" 1869-1952]; grandson
of Seneca Howland and Agnes King. Transcribed
from A. C. Howland's notes by Roger W. Howland, grand-son of A. C. Howland on 23
May, 1995.
Posted by Roger
Howland <Howland@hooked.net> on Sat, 17 Apr 1999
