The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 313

little land, when he went home and married Annis Drake, a native of Goshen, N. Y., with whom he returned the same fall, in company with this brother, Elijah Buck, and the latter's wife and daughter Sarah. Elijah had previously bought lot 73 of a soldier who served in the Revolutionary War. Both families lived in the log house till its destruction by fire the same fall, (a calamity by which they lost everything but the clothes on their backs,) when they removed to the house of Philip King, about three-fourths of a mile distant, where they remained till other houses were built. Mr. King's family at this time consisted of his wife, three sons, (Richard, Jeremiah and Daniel,) and a daughter, the latter of whom was subsequently united in wedlock to Elder John Jeffries, one of the earliest ministers in this section of the country, with whom she removed to Throopsville.

The Messrs. Buck built separate houses that fall. Aholiab's stood on the site of the one destroyed by fire; and Elijah's near the house now occupied by Mr. Henry Vosburgh.

The town was then heavily timbered, principally with beech and maple, with some basswood, oak, whitewood and hemlock. Game and fish were plentiful , yet breadstuffs and other edibles were scarce. Bears and wolves were numerous and a source of much annoyance. Daniel Drake Buck relates that on one occasion when his uncle Aholiab was away from home his aunt shot and killed a bear which was disturbing the pig pen in the night. This was about 1805 or `6. The Messrs. Buck had two guns, one of which they left loaded, to be used in case of emergency. The heroine of this story was a resolute woman, a good sample of the women who undertook pioneer life. Aholiab Buck removed to Illinois in 1832.

Mr. Buck recollects seeing seven or eight deer browsing with his father's cattle from maple trees felled for that purpose when fodder was scarce.

He says that his father had his first grinding done at Tyler's Spring, about one mile north of Auburn, where a mortar and pestle, so common in those days, had been constructed. The mortar consisted of a hard-wood stump, and the pestle was attached to a spring pole. Later his father and uncle were accustomed to go with their grists and those of their neighbors to Seneca Falls, after a mill had been built at that place. The journey was made with a canoe of large size, which had been established on the Outlet, the route being by way of the Outlet to Seneca River, thence to Seneca Falls. The canoe was constructed from a large white-wood tree. The journey usually occupied three days.

On the farm settled by Elijah Buck was a well, known as the Indian well, from the supposition that the Indians dug it. It was about ten feet deep and furnished a constant supply of water, which is now used to water the cattle on the farm. Evidences of Indian occupancy, for brief periods at least, probably while on hunting and fishing excursions, exist in numerous flint arrow-heads and stone tomahawks which have been brough to the surface in various localities by the plow. Portions of clay vessels, evidently used for culinary purposed, have also been found.

On the lot bought by Elijah Buck was a splendid water privilege, with a natural fell of ten to fifteen feet. This privilege, with ten acres, was soon after given by the Messrs. Buck to Aaron Knapp for the purpose of erecting a mill there on; and the mill then erected by him was the first one built in the town. The precise year in which it was built cannot now be ascertained. The property soon after passed into the hands of a Mr. Aiken. The erection of the mill gave an impetus to the settlements.

Daniel Loveland, originally from Vermont, moved in from the southern part of the County, with his family, consisting of his wife and four children, one son, and three daughters, in 1799, and settled near where the depot now stands. Peter Ransier and Moses Lent, from Owego, settled on lot 62 in 1800.

Up to this time Mentz was a part of the town of Aurelius, from which it was erected, as Jefferson, March 30th, 1802, and its name changed April 6th, 1806. It then embraced the present town of Montezuma and a part of Throop, which portions were set off April 8th, 1859.

Following is a list of the first officers of Jefferson, now Mentz, who were elected March 6th, 1804: Isaac Smith, Supervisor; Lewis Kitchel, Clerk; Caleb Ward, Israel Clapp and James Leonard, Assessors; Joseph Farrand, Collector; Caleb Ward and Isaac Barnum, Overseers of the Poor; Philip King, Israel Smith and Prentice

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