The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 377
TOWN OF FLEMING/ EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

north-west of Fleming, where Ephraim Beach now lives. His brother Samuel, and cousins Penuel, John, Zadoc, William, Solomon and Thomas, all of whom, except William, had families, settled in the same locality, which was long known as Grover's Hill. The Grovers were from the Eastern States. Joseph Grover opened a store in 1797, which was the first store in the town. Grover's Hill gave early promise of becoming a thriving village, and had assumed considerable importance long before much improvement was made on Fleming Hill, its future successful rival. Two sons of Penuel Grover, are living, viz: David and Abram, the former in Scipio and the latter on the old Fleming place. Edward Wheeler settled on the ridge road, on the west line of the town, where his great-grandson, Geo. Wheeler, now lives, and where he died. His youngest son, Aurelius Wheeler, who was born March 28th, 1792, and named after the town of Aurelius, was the first white child born in the town of Fleming. He and his brother Elijah subsequently removed to Aurelius and died there, the former November 5th, 1870.

The following year, 1792, Abel Wilkinson opened the first inn. In this year also occurred the first death, the wife of George West, who, in company with a family named Nettleton, came in a short time before from the Eastern States, and settled just west of Fleming. Nettleton settled on a farm adjoining West's on the west, where Jonathan Griffiths now lives, and kept a distillery. Both moved west after 1812. In 1794, the first school was taught by John Herring, who had settled at Auburn, then Hardenbergh's Corners.

Gen. George Fleming, from whom the town derived its name, settled about this time, where Abram Grover now lives. He was a man of considerable prominence, and is well remembered by the oldest of the early settlers now living from his participation in the militia trainings of that period. He died in the town about 1823 or '4.

Jacob Byers, a German, from Pennsylvania, came in soon after 1790, possibly in that year, and settled at Wyckoffs Station, where Peter V. Wyckoff now lives. He removed with his family to Springport about 1803. He came in company with Isaac Jolly and Asa Jackson, also from Pennsylvania, on foot. Jolly settled on lot 98, and removed to the west part of the State at an early day. Jackson settled on a hundred acres, between Byers and Jolly, where Thomas Plunkett now lives. He came with his wife and child, on foot, and carried his ax upon his shoulder. Soon after the beginning of the present century he traded with Abram Voorhees for a hundred acres at the foot of Owasco Lake, where he died in 1816. One daughter, Catharine, now Mrs. Samuel Noyes, is living in Owasco. Henry VanArsdale came in prior to 1796 and settled on lot 98, where Tallman VanDyne now lives. He removed from the town at an early day.

In 1796, Wm. Post, at the request of his father, who was then in New Jersey, came, in company with Abram Van Ness, his brother-in-law, with whom he had removed to Ovid, Seneca county, from New Jersey, in 1794, to examine lot 91, for which his father was then negotiating. Wm. Post, having sent a satisfactory description of the lot to his father, settled where David B. Post now lives, and Van Ness, who married Post's sister Lena, where Horace Post now lives. This same year his father, Christopher Post, came in from New Jersey with his wife, Margaret, his youngest son, Jacob, and his wife, Mary, his daughter, Mary, and her husband, Cornelius Peterson, and his youngest daughter, Ida, who was then unmarried, but subsequently became the wife of John Brokaw, in company with Cornelius Peterson, father of his son-in-law Cornelius, and his family, which was large. Christopher took up 472 acres on lot 91, and settled in the south-east corner, where Ebenezer Gilbert now lives. They came with wagons, over the mountains, fording streams which were bridgeless. Peterson settled on lot 83, where George Peterson, his grandson, now lives. Christopher Post died on the homestead March 17th, 1816. His family are all dead, but several of his descendants are living in this locality. George Post, another son of Christopher, came in from New Jersey in May, 1798, with his wife, Anna, and two children, Margaret and John, the former of whom, now the widow of Wm. Selover, is living in Auburn. His family went to Albany by the Hudson, and he joined them there by team across the country, and brought them thence to their destination by the same mode of conveyance. He remained some ten days with his father, during which time he bought of Lucas Brinkerhoff, a German from

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