The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 421
Town of Scipio/Early Settlements

who is the only one of his children living, was born January 4th, 1799. The next spring after coming in Fordyce sowed upon the site of Nathaniel's house three pecks of wheat brought in the previous winter by Ebenezer Craw from the Mohawk country, and reaped therefrom nineteen and one-half bushels, which, excepting so much as was ground for family consumption, was garnered in a hollow log, the rotted portions of which had been burned out. The log was inlaid and covered with bark, and raised upon crotched poles. McCullum settled a quarter of a mile north of Fordyce, where Pardon T. Shorkley now lives. He sold out about 1810, and removed with his family to Farmington, Ontario county. His children were Isaiah, Joel, Rebecca, who afterwards married a man named Fowler, Mary, who afterwards married a man named Streeter, and Robert. Horton died of typhus fever about a year after he came in. Two of his children are living in the western part of the State, viz: Isaiah and Phebe, wife of Stephen Robinson.

In the fall of 1796, after harvesting their crops, Fordyce, Coe, Elder Irish and Josiah Buck made up a load of forty bushels of wheat and sent it to mill by Buck, accompanied by a stout hired man in the employ of Coe. The nearest mill was at Whitesboro, and thither the grist was taken in a covered wagon obtained from the Mohawk country the previous winter by Coe, who having, $1,800 in pocket and his farm paid for, was then considered very wealthy. The journey occupied four weeks. The wagon served as a place of shelter at night for those accompanying it, and they did not sleep in a house during the entire journey, except at Whitesboro, while the wheat was being ground. Occasionally, on coming to a steep ascent, it was necessary to unhitch the oxen, (of which there were two yokes, one furnished by Fordyce and one by Elder Irish,) take them to the summit of the hill, and draw up the wagon by means of chains attached to the tongue. It was often necessary for the attendants, both of whom were strong, muscular men, to put their shoulders to the wheel when the wagon got into a hollow from which the oxen were unable to withdraw it, and sometimes they were obliged to unload a portion of the grain before further progress could be made. A family named Henry from the Eastern states, settled a little north of Coe about the same time. None of the family are living. Henry died there. Eleazer Hill and Alexander Weed, from the New England States, settled soon after in the same locality. The widow of his son Joshua is living at an advanced age with her son Erastus Hill in Scipio. Wm. Cowen settled in 1797, where his son Wm. R. Cowen now lives. He had five children, four of whom are living, one in Michigan.

William Daniels, from Saratoga county, Geo. Elliott, from Mass., and a man named Haskins, from Washington county, came in 1798. Daniel settled in what is now known as Daniels settlement, about two miles north-east of Scipio Center, where he lived to an advanced age. He and his wife spent their declining years with their son Benjamin in Michigan. Daniels taught that year the first school in Scipio, but he taught only one winter. His qualification as a teacher seems not to have been very ample, for it is said he not solve a problem in the Rule of Three. His brother, Capt. John Daniels, who was one of the most intelligent men in the town, came in from Mass., in 1804, and settled about a mile south-east of him, where his son Hiram now lives, and where he died in 1871, aged 95. Hiram was born on the place in 1811. One other child, Harriet, wife of Hiram Olney, is living in Illinois. Both William and John, the latter of whom was a captain in the war of 1812, were for a great many years deacons in the Baptist Church. Geo. Elliott was a Revolutionary soldier and served seven years. He settled two miles north of Scipio Center, on the lot taken up by Joel Co, where ---- Webster now lives. He afterwards settled on lot 8. He died some thirty years since on the farm subsequently owned by his son William, and now owned by Allen Hoxie. His family consisted, when he came in, of his wife Eleanor, and six children, Samuel, John, George, Mary, afterwards wife of William Fish, Prudence, afterwards wife of John Cowan, and William, the latter of whom is the only one living, in Scipioville. He was 82 years old April 7th, 1878. He had four children after coming in, viz: Sarah, afterwards wife of Joseph Cox, Jane, Otis and Nelly, afterwards wife of Wm. Bregg. George Elliott, of the firm of Lyon, Elliott & Bloom of Auburn, is a son of William Elliott now living at Scipioville. Haskins was grandfather to Edwin P. Haskins, now living on the old homestead.

The information on this page was transcribed to a digital format by Roger A. Post

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