WOMEN BIOGRAPHIES, YATES CO., NY

Copyright (c) 1999 by Bonnie Bunce (bmbunce@juno.com).

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Since the earliest large influx of emigrants into Yates County, 
New York was led by a woman preacher named Jemima Wilkinson, who called
herself "The Universal Friend" in later years, I believe Stafford C.
Cleveland was more sensitive to the contributions made by women to the
county,and there are numerous mentions in his HISTORY AND DIRECTORY OF
YATES COUNTY, NEW YORK, published in 1873, about the work that women did.
 Below is a list of the page numbers where much of this information can
be found.  Many of the women worked as teachers, but mention is also made
of a couple who worked as midwifes/doctors in the early days when there
was no college-educated doctor in the area.  A woman printer is mentioned
and a widow raised enough money from her weaving efforts to buy farmland
for herself and children.  The most pertinent information regarding
women's work was placed in capital letters, and does not appear that way
in Cleveland's history.

Women's work, types of vi, 19, 39-48, 50, 60, 87-88, 90-91, 93, 96, 109, 
116-17, 124, 130-31, 137, 159, 166, 201, 251-52, 260-61, 264, 269, 305,
312, 360, 380-81, 392, 394, 455, 550, 553, 557, 563, 567, 574, 603, 622,
628, 683, 691-92, 724, 729, 770, 772, 775, 791, 804, 807, 856, 865, 877,
906, 931, 939, 981, 1013, 1036, 1105, 1109-10, 1112-113, 1122-23, 
1144-45, 1151

Below are paragraphs from Cleveland's History of some of the more
prominent women in Yates Co.

pp. 19-20: "While these events were in progress, movements for settling
the country were awakening in various quarters, the most important of
which at this early day was that of the Universal Friend.  This
remarkable personage had for fourteen years preached in Rhode Island,
Connecticut and Pennsylvania. She had a numerous body of adherents
including families of character and influence, and considerable
possessions.  She had conceived the idea of founding a community of her
disciples where they might stand as as support to each other, and a light
to the surrounding world.  This proposition had been discussed in their
councils with earnestness, and in 1786 they held a meeting in
Connecticut, at which they resolved to send forth a committe of
exploration to select some place, far from towns and cities, where they
might live in peace and establish without interference the peculiar faith
and social tenets of their new religion, under the direct control of its
living founder and apostle.  Like many other migrations before it, this
was initiated under the impulse of religious sentiment, and it had the
fevor and thorougness of purpose which accompany such movements.  A new
and somewhat singular body of people, under the leadership of a gifted
and striking character, they naturally sought an unrestricted field for
the development of their society and one from which the pressure of
existing organizations, and their unbending prejudices should be removed.
 They desired to plant the new society outside the shadow of older and
better organized creeds, where its roots might strike into a new and
virgin soil  and its branches reach forth to the heavens without
hindrance or compression."

On pp. 39-50 of the history is a biography of Jemina Wilkinson and her
conversion to a preacher and in 1790-91 how she came to lead a party of
nearly 300 settlers into what is today Yates Co., New York.  On p. 32,
the history states that the 1790 census showed a total of 1,047
inhabitants of the seven Ranges of the Phelps and Gorham's purchase and
west of the Genesee River. "If we add, however, the Friend's Settlement
east of the Pre-emption Line, numbering 260 persons, Geneva and its
surrounding settlers 100, also east of the Pre-emption Line, and Culver's
at the head of Seneca Lake, 70, we have 1477 for the whole region west of
Seneca Lake, then known as the Genesee Country and comprised in Ontario
County. . .  This would give us 388 for the population of what is now
Yates county, in 1790.  It will be seen that the Friend's Settlement was
at that time much the largest and most important community west of Seneca
Lake, and even west of Fort Stanwix, and the Susquehanna River."

pp. 87-88, section on the Faithful Sisterhood [of the Friend's Society]: 
"Lucy Brown was the sister of Susannah and Temperance Brown, and of
Daniel Brown, senior, of the Friend's Society.  She was a person of the
highest moral worth, and one of the first characters in the Society.  She
lived on the corner south of the residence of Watkins Davis, where HER
HOUSE, BUILT BY HERSELF, STILL STANDS.  Her residence was on the Friend's
land, where she led her single life and SUPPORTED HERSELF BY MAKING
BUTTER AND CHEESE AND OTHER LITTLE INDUSTRIES.  She lived to be quite
aged and survived the Friend several years."

p. 90:  "Hannah Baldwin was also an early member of the Society, who came
with the first tide of settlement.  She was distantly connected with the
Comstocks, and was a devoted, consistent, and good woman, living singly
through life.  She was very prominent in the Society and much respected. 
SHE MAINTAINED HERSELF ON THE FRIEND'S LAND BY HER OWN INDUSTRY, MAKING
BUTTER AND CHEESE, WITH LITTLE FARMING OPERATIONS.  Her house was
eastward of the creek from the Friend's house, on the north side of the
road.  She survived the Friend about twenty-five years and died at a very
advanced age.  She was remarkable for her youthful and fresh appearance
even in old age."

p. 116, biographical sketch on Thomas Hathaway and family: "Mary
[Hathaway, dau. of Thomas Hathaway, Sr. and his wife Mary Botsford]
married her cousin, Capt. Wm. Hathaway, and has three children, Wm. B.,
Mary and Thomas.  She is a person of superior personal endowments, AND
HAS WRITTEN THE FAMILY HISTORY."

p. 124, sketch on The Botsfords:  "Mrs. [Margaret (Scott)] Botsford MADE
HER HUSBAND A COAT THE YEAR THEY WERE MARRIED, CARDING THE WOOL HERSELF,
SPINNING AND WEAVING THE YARN AND COLORING THE CLOTH.  IT WAS SENT TO
GENEVA FOR FULLING.  Her sister Orpha [Scott], who WAS ONE OF THE
EARLIEST SCHOOL TEACHERS, married Perley Gates, and died at the age of
ninety-seven." 

p. 251, chapter on Town of Benton, sketch on the Spencers: "James
Pattison, the father of Mrs. Spencer, after viewing the premises with his
son-in-law, selected a place for his final repose, now a little west of
the Pre-emption road, and south of the house, which has long been used as
a family burying ground. . . . The old man died in the autumn of 1792, at
the age of seventy-three.  His wife, Betsy Pattison, thirteen years his
junior, was a woman of great energy, whose precept and example gave life
and encouragement, not only to her own family, but all the surrounding
pioneer settlers.  She had courage, knowledge, experience and address,
which made her one of the most useful residents of the region just
peopling with new beginners.  IN THE ABSENCE OF PROFESSIONAL DOCTORS, SHE
WAS WIDELY EMPLOYED AS A PHYSICIAN AND MIDWIFE. SHE WAS AS SUCCESSFUL AND
NO DOUBT AS USEFUL AS THE MOST 
ACCOMPLISHED GRADUATES OF THE SCHOOLS, AND BEING A SKILLFUL AND SENSIBLE
HORSEBACK RIDER, MADE HER VISITS PROMPTLY, WHILE HER FEE OF ONE DOLLAR
WAS ADAPTED TO THE PURSE OF THE EARLY SETTLER. If any ambitious and
talented 
young woman waits for a precedent before engaging in a profession to
which her sex is admirably adapted, she will find in this worthy pioneer
mother an example which sets the argument of propriety forever at rest,
and a sanction three generations ago by an excellent community of New
England people. Mrs. Pattison died in 1821, at the age of ninety-three."

pp. 304-05, Town of Benton, sketch on Benjamin Dean:  "Elizakim Dean, the
elder brother of Zebulon, was the father of Jefferson Dean, of Newfield,
Tomkins Co., whose daughter KATE DEAN, IS A CULTIVATED AND NOTED CONCERT
SINGER."

p. 380, chapter on Town of Italy: "Polly Torrey, the sister of the wife
of Mrs. Jabez Metcalf [Nancy Torrey], TAUGHT THE FIRST SCHOOL IN ITALY,
IN 1804."

p. 392, Town of Italy, sketch on Graham family:  "Robert Graham, the
oldest son of Robert Graham heretofore mentioned, married Mary Ann Ayres,
of Chester, Vermont, and in 1811 settled on lot 34, South Survey, where
he died in 1835, at the age of sixty-three. . . . Their children were
Eunice, Valentine, Samuel, Abigail and Mary Ann. The mother of this
family was a woman of remarkable industry and business capacity. SHE WAS
PARTICULARLY  DISTINGUISHED AS A KNITTER.  SEVERAL TIMES A YEAR SHE WOULD
FILL A LARGE PAIR OF SADDLE BAGS WITH SOCKS AND MITTENS, AND HANGING
ANOTHER LARGE BUNDLE ON THE HORNS OF THE SIDE SADDLE, SHE WOULD VISIT
GENEVA AND CANANDAIGUA, WHERE SHE WOULD EXCHANGE HER WORK FOR
MERCHANDIZE, SOME OF WHICH WOULD AGAIN BE EXCHANGED FOR MORE KNITTING
MATERIAL.  IN THIS WAY SHE CONTRIBUTED LARGELY TO THE FAMILY INCOME.  She
died in 1836, at the age of sixty-five."

p. 550, Town of Jerusalem, sketch on Albert R. Cowing:  Mary, [dau. of
John and ____ (Cottle) Cowing, sister of Albert] in 1822 in middle life, 
married John Ayres of Phelps, a Catholic and a farmer, owning one hundred
acres.  The marriage was unhappy and he willed his property to the
Catholic Church in Geneva.  SHE, DISGUSTED WITH THE UNEQUAL LAWS IN
REGARD TO WOMEN, AS EARLY AS 1830, CIRCULATED A PETITION TO THE
LEGISLATURE FOR A GRANT OF EQUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.  THE PETITION WAS
TWELVE TO FOURTEEN FEET LONG, AND WAS SIGNED BY MANY INFLUENTIAL
CITIZENS.  It was at that time made a subject of laughter and honored
with an adverse report.  But Mrs Ayres was a pioneer in a just cause,
which has since gained the triumph she did not live to see."