CHEMUNG ~ STEUBEN~ TIOGA

ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET

The early days of Chemung, Steuben and Tioga Counties, and their various towns and townships, are recalled through a mixture of colorful tales and factual data in this NEW 36 Page Booklet reprinted primarily from two hard-to-find books: the 1841 edition of Historical Collections of the State of New York by John Warner Barber and Henry Howe, and New York, a Guide to the Empire State, a WPA project.
The spiral-bound booklet, sold exclusively on eBay, is printed one-sided on 60# paper, with the print enlarged for easier reading. A clear vinyl sheet has been added to protect the front cover.
The communities mentioned include:
CHEMUNG COUNTY: Big Flats, Catherines, Havana, Catlin, Cayuta, Cehmung, Dix, Elmira, Erin, Southport, Wellsburg, and Veteran.
STEUBEN COUNTY: Addison, Bath, Avoca, Kenadaville, Mud Creek, Bradford, Cameron, Campbell, Canisteo, Caton, Conhocton, Liberty, Blood's Corners, Patchin's Mills, Dansville, Erwin, Greenwood, Hornby, Hornellsville, Howard, Bennet's Flats, Jasper, Adamsport, Lindley, Orange, Painted Post, Centreville, Knoxville, Prattsburg, Pulteney, Reading, Irelandville, Jefferson, Savoy, Troupsburg, Tyrone, Urbana, Hammondsport, Wayne, Wheeler, Woodhull, Newville, Corning, Hornell, and Wayland.
TIOGA COUNTY: Barton, Factoryville, Berkshire, Candor, Newark, Newark Valley, Nichols, Rushville, Canfield's Corners, Owego, Richford, Spencer, Tioga, Smithborough, and Ransomville.
Among the many and diverse topics in the booklet are: How Elmira Came to be called "Elmira"; Early settlers and the Cost of Land; the Indian Pathway; an Unruly Indian Visitor; the Treaty of the 6 Nations with the United States at the Council Tree in Elmira with Red Jacket, Timothy Pickering and others; a Visit by French Royalty; the remarkable Catherine Montour (Queen Esther); Spanish Hill, an Unusual Mound with vestiages of Early Fortifications; Canals and Railroads, the Battle of Chemung in the Revolutionary War; the Rapid Development of Bath; the Story of the Painted Post; The Bunion Derby; Kanisteo Castle, an Outlaws Refuge; Elim Bible School Camp Meetings; Elmira College for Women; Corning Glass Works; the Observatory Museum; the Cradle of American Aviation; the Pleasent Valley Winery, early Champagne Makers; Indian Customs; Surviving Famines, Tom Platt's Annual Pancake Breakfasts; and Points of Interest in Elmira.
Names mentioned include: David Ayres, Watkins, Col. John Hendy, John Miller, Capt. Partridge, Thomas Hendy, Marks, Solomon Southwich, Nathaniel Seely, Moses DeWitt, White, Guy Maxwell, Samuel Hepburn, Mrs. Theodose Crane, Richard DuPont, Peter Riedel, Nathan Teall, Abner Wright, Mathias Arnot, Joel Steel, Thomas Beecher, Simeon Benjamin, Dr. Augustus Cowles, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Olivia Langdon, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Zebulon Brockway, Capt. Charles Williamson, Johnstone, George Edwards, Dugald Cameron, Solomon Bennett, Stevens, Capt. Jemison, Freegift Patchin, George Hornell, James McMaster, Amos Draper, William Tylor, Hudson, Dr. Lucius Allen, Col. David Pixley, Thomas Collier Platt, Roscoe Conkling and Theodore Dreiser.
ILLUSTRATIONS depict a Distant View of the Village of Elmira, the East side of Pulteney Square in Bath, an Early Method of Pounding Corn, the west view of the Courthouse and Other Buildings in Owego. Plattsburg, the Grave of Commodore Downie, the Adirondack Mountains, the Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga, and Malone.
Much of this area was sparcely developed in 1841, but excerpts from New York, a Guide to the Empire State, fill in some of the gaps. This product of the WPA Writer's Project, originally printed in 1940, gives a nostalgic glympse of the area a century after the Barber-Howe book, including interesting historical notes, especially as they relate to sightseeing possibilities. Some of the names mentioned in this section include: Jacob Smith Moody, Dr. Trudeau, John Brown, Henry Van Hoevenberg, Josephine Schofield, John Fitch, Rosewell Morse Shurleff, A. F. Tait, A. H. Wyant, Noah Porter, William James, Willard Fiske, Charles Dudley Warner, Felix Adler, the Rev. Joseph Twichell, the Rev. Horace Bushnell, Thomas Davidson, Charles Corning, Gersham Cook, William Stillman, Ralph Waldo Memerson, James Russell Lowell, Lewis Agassiz, Ebenezer R. Hoar, Jeffries Wyman, John Hurd, William Constable, William Almon Wheeler, Sir John Johnson, Gen. James Wilkinson, Brigadier General Leonard Covington, John Francis Regis, Ethan Allen, Chancellor James Kent, Henry DeLord, and Henry Van Dyke.
There's also a small map of the area from a 1948 booklet printed by the New York Telephone Company.