The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 378
EARLY SETTLEMENTS/ TOWN OF FLEMING
Esopus, (who came in the same year and purchased a State's hundred of Jacob Byers,) fifty acres, on which the former had made a small clearing and built a log house. He died October 4th, 1851, on the old homestead, which is now occupied by his son, Christopher G. Post, and grandson, George Sumner Post; the former of whom was born there August 8th, 1803; and still possesses a good degree of physical and mental vigor, and who was Supervisor in 1855, '57 and '59, and Assessor three years, which latter office his son, George Sumner Post, now holds. This fifty acres is on lot 91, on the shore of Owasco Lake, a fine view of which it commands. The following grand-children of Christopher Post, in addition to Christopher G. and Margaret, before named, are living, viz: Ida Peterson, daughter of Cornelius Peterson, on the Peterson farm, now occupied by her nephew, Cornelius Peterson. Christopher, son of Wm. Post, in Wyoming county. Margaret, widow of Frederick Van Liew, in Ohio; Jacob, in Scipio; Martin, in Perry, Wyoming county; George; Jane, now Mrs. Ebenezer Gilbert; Helen, now Mrs. Cornelius Peterson, and Phebe Ann, now Mrs. James Chamberlain, the latter with her brother-in-law, E. Gilbert, all children of Jacob Post, in Fleming. Hon. George I. Post, of Fair Haven, son of John Post, is a great-grandson of Christopher's. His mother, Catharine, is now living with David B. Post, in Fleming, on the old homestead of John Post. Lucas Brinkerhoff lived on his remaining fifty acres three years, when he sold them to George Post, to whom he sold the first fifty, and removed to lot 98. There he remained till the spring of 1816, when he again sold to George Post, and moved to Owasco and subsequently to Yates county, where he died.
Dr. Asa Cooley, the first physician in the town, settled three miles west of Fleming Hill, where George Baim now lives, and where he died, prior to 1798. His son Asa is living in Sennett. A family named Tyler and a man named Wise, father of William and George Wise, settled prior to 1798, the former on Fleming Hill, and the latter where the widow of his son William, and George, a bachelor, now lives, and where he and his son William died.
Settlements were made about 1798, by Orrin Wilkinson, Johnson Scoville and Josiah Chatfield. Wilkinson settled east of Gen. Fleming, on an adjoining farm, about three miles south-west of Fleming village, where he lost his wife. He remarried and removed to Seneca county, leaving his sons Orrin, Lyman and Lemuel, the latter of whom remained on the farm till a few years ago, and is now living in Sennett. Orrin and Lyman moved west, the former some fifty years ago, and the latter six or eight years ago. Scoville was from Connecticut and settled where John Wheaton now lives, about a mile and a half north-west of Fleming, where he hung himself about 1820, while suffering from aberration produced by religious excitation. Chatfield was from the Eastern States, and settled on Fleming Hill, where the widow of Hugh Van Ness now lives, and where he died. He is believed to have been the first to settle on the site of the village. His family have all removed from the town.
John Baker came from Connecticut to the Mohawk country and thence to Fleming about the beginning of the present century. He settled on Fleming Hill, where his son Artemas kept a blacksmith shop. His first house was burned, when he built the one in which Dr. Samuel Gilmore now lives, which is only a few rods from the site of the first.
Parley Wheeler, brother of Edward Wheeler, came in from Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1805, and settled on lot 87, about three miles west of Fleming, where his son, Edward P. Wheeler, now lives, and where, in 1807, he built a hotel, which he kept a great many years. He and his brother died here at a very advanced age. Another son of Parley's, Erastus, is living in Fleming, about a mile east of the old farm.
Aaron Bowen came in from Massachusetts in 1810, and settled where his son, John Smith Bowen, now lives, and where he died in 1839. Amy Bowen, his daughter, who gcame in with him, is living with John Smith Bowen, aged eighty-two years.
TOWN OFFICERS.--The first town meeting was held April 15th, 1823, and the first town officers were Luman Loomis, Supervisor; Amos Gould, Clerk; Elijah Sheldon, Semi Babbit and John G. Paul, Assessors; Amos Gould and Elijah Wheeler, Overseers of the Poor; Ephraim Hammond, Mathew F. Gregory and Ebenezer Gould, Commissioners of Highways; Luther Hamilton, Collector; Joseph Farmer, Luther Hamilton and John G. Burroughs, Constables; Orange Wilkin-
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1789-1879 by Elliott Storke
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