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Chemung Township.
The town of Chemung was formed March 22, 1788, as a town in Montgomery county, and elections held for the years 1788, 1789, 1790, the latter year Daniel McDowell acted as town clerk. On February 15, 1791, by an act of the Legislature, the boundaries were changed when the county of Tioga was formed from the county of Montgomery. On the 5th day of April, 1791, an election for town officers was held at the house of George Hornell, in Chemung. Brinton Paine, Bezaleel Seely, John Miller, inspectors. Officers chosen, Abner Kelsey, supervisor; John Konkle, town clerk; Brinton Paine, Bezaleel Seeley, Lebbeus Hammond, commissioners of highways; Conrad Smith, Jr., constable and collector; Christian Loop, John Parkhurst, Daniel Dewitt, James Cameron, constables; Joseph Hinchman, Phineas Catlin, Caleb Baker, assessors; Abraham Miller, William Jenkins, Samuel Seeley, Thomas Keeney, Elijah Buck, Thomas Baldwin, Brinton Paine, Cornelius Lowe and Caleb Gardner, fence viewers; David Burt, Thomas Baldwin, William Jenkins, pound keepers; overseers of the high-
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ways, Epenetus Owen, 1st district; Elijah Drake, 2d district; Thomas Baldwin, 3d district; Joshua Carpenter, 4th district; Pheneas Catlin, 5th district; Thomas Hendy, 6th district; Elisha Brown, Big Flats district; Abner Hatfield, on Seeley Creek. Early settlers were: William Wynkoop, Joel Thomas, Anthony Rummerfield, Ezekiel Brown, Jacob Shineberg, Christian Loop, Ashkenaz Shappee, Isaac Baldwin, Abisha Marks, Elias Middaugh, Thomas Middaugh, Thomas Keeney, Daniel McDowell, Samuel Beidleman, Jacob Kress, Waterman Baldwin, Stephen B. Leonard, Joseph Bennett, Enoch Warren, Enoch Warren, Jr., Ebenezer Green, Jacob Lowman, James Wilson, Israel Parshall, Uriah Wilson, David Burt, Justus Bennett, Benjamin Wynkoop, John Hillman, Joseph Decker, Samuel Westbrook, Jonathan Griswold, John Squires, Abijah Batterson, Jacob Kress, Elijah Buck, Johnson Miller, Uriah Wilson, Thomas Baldwin, Dr. Hovey Everett, Jesse Carpenter, Thomas Burt, Abraham Bennett, James Wilson, Ebenezer Green, Joseph Drake, Moses Depue. Chemung is the mother township of the county, and formed the original territory of the entire present limits of the county, besides that of the township Dix, Catharine, Montour and Cayuta, in Schuyler. This was at its formation in 1788. In 1791 its limits were curtailed and in 1792, when the town of Newtown was formed it was still more lessened as will be seen by reference to the history of that township. It was within its original limits that the great battle between the army of General Sullivan, and the British and Indians occurred in August, 1779. The Chemung river passes through the township forming a valley rich in alluvial soils. Its early settlers were men of mark, several of them had been soldiers and officers in the revolutionary war. Others were distinguished civilians and brought with the intelligence and enterprise. The McDowell's, the Baldwin's, the Buck's, the Lowman's, the Wynkoop's, the Carpenter's, gave the town of Chemung a lasting and permanent reputation in the history of the early settlement and developement of the county. --Elijah Buck kept the first store. --Ashel Buck was the first lawyer. --Chemung Grange, organized May, 1784. --Dr. Hovey Everett was the first physician. --Samuel Walker was the first school teacher. --Moses Dewitt was the first surveyor in 1787. --Elijah Buck was the first postmaster, in 1810. --Erie railroad, completed to Chemung, in 1849. --Asa Parshall erected the first brick house, in 1829. --Henry Teater carried the first mail through the valley. --Major William Wynkoop built the first framed house. --William Wynkoop kept the first hotel or tavern, in 1788. --Sergeant Elijah Buck, died in the year 1830, aged 81 years. --Jefferson Burr Clark was a member of assembly, in 1851-56. --Paul Colson was commissioner of loans, from 1873 till 1880. --Capt. Daniel McDowell, died in the year 1808, aged 44 years. --Hon. John G. McDowell, died January 1, 1866, aged 72 years. --Noble Weller of Chemung, was justice of sessions, in 1858-64-66.
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--Major William Wynkoop, died in the year 1827, aged 74 years. --The first death in the town was William Bosworth, in the year 1790. --Nathaniel Goodspeed was the first commissioner of highways in 1788. --Chemung Valley Lodge, No. 350, F. & A. M., organized June 8, 1855. --Guy Maxwell and Eleanor VanSteinberg, were the first couple married. --Henry Baker of Chemung, was sheriff of Chemung count, from 1859 to 1861. --Joseph Batterson drove the first stage. He was subsequently killed by the Indians. --During the war of the rebellion there were one hundred and fifty-three men enlisted from the town. --Samuel Beidleman, located on his farm in the year 1787. He was from Easton, Northampton county, Pa. --The first child born in Chemung, was Morris Catlin, the son of Israel and Diantha Catlin, in the year 1790. --At a town meeting held April 3, 1792, a bounty of forty shillings was voted to pay for every wolf killed in the town. --Vine Baldwin, an old pioneer in the town of Chemung, was the first white child born west of the Allegheny mountains. --The soldiers of the revolutionary was who were pioneers in Chemung, were: Major William Wynkoop, Sergeant Elijah Buck, Captain Daniel McDowell, Israel Parshall, Thomas Keeney, Jacob Kress, Waterman Baldwin, Thomas Baldwin, Samuel Beidleman, Moses Depue. --Hon. John G. McDowell, of Chemung, son of Captain Daniel McDowell, was appointed judge of the court of common pleas, for Tioga county, in 1821, elected to the assembly in 1829, senator in 1831, was the first president of the Chemung Canal Bank, and was appointed a commissioner of loans, by Gov. W. L. Marcy. He was one of the foremost men in the county, and a life-long resident. --Hon. George W. Buck, son of one of the old pioneers, was member of assembly in the year 1848 and 1867. In 1848 he was a commissioner to appraise damages caused by the construction of the New York and Erie railroad. He filled many civil positions. --The first religious society was formed by the Baptist, in 1789, by Rev. Roswell Goff. His remains are buried in the northeastern portion of Big Flats, in a small grave-yard, about one hundred rods north of the home of the late George Shriver. He was the pioneer Baptist clergyman in the counties of Chemung, Tompkins, Schuyler and Steuben. --First M. E. church was formed in the year 1819. The first meeting was held in the school house, at Wynkoop's creek. Rev. Horace Agard, presiding elder. Rev. William M. Pearn was the first resident minister. The original members were: Jerry Holland and wife, James Ribble and wife, Epenetus Owens and wife, Phillip McConnell and wife, Joseph Swain and wife, Nancy Floyd, Katie Floyd, Treadway Kellogg, Betsey Swain, Julia Wynkoop, Stephen Vanderlip and wife, William Kellogg and wife. --The first court of common pleas, for the county of Tioga, was held at the house of George Hornell, in Chemung, in 1791, in the month of June, and in January, 1792. Hon. Abraham Miller of Chemung, presiding, with
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three associate judges and one justice. James McMasters, sheriff; Thomas Nicholson, clerk; Vincent Mathews, David Woodcock, David Powers, attorneys. In 1792, Abram TenBroeck, Peter Loop, Samuel M. Hopkins and John Wickham were admitted as attorneys.
