Yates County History
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The shores of the Finger Lakes
Perhaps no other county in New York State has such mystic boundaries. The Finger Lakes, according to Indian Legend are the depressions left by the hand of the Great Spirit when he rested from his labors. The shores of them, Seneca, Keuka and Canadaigua are part of Yates County.
Red Jacket, for instance, was a very famous Native American orator. A chief of the Senecas, he held the attention of his listeners so that his name. Sagoyewatha, translates into English as “he who keeps them awake.” Substantiated information relays that Red Jacket went many times to Montour Falls to practice oratory in the roar of the cataract there. No wonder he was able to “Keep them awake” Now a bronze full size statue of the statesman graces the village park in Penn Yan that bears his name.
He might have crossed paths with the Friend, for they lived concurrently, each having been born in 1752. Red Jacket claimed his birthplace was on the bar south of Branchport on the west branch of Keuka Lake. It was to this general locality that Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend, repaired to establish a colony for the faithful members of her society. She was the first native-born American woman to found a new religion, and hers was one of the first lasting settlements in the Genesee Country.
Another incident in the county’s history, although distant in time, is not so distant in thought. It is a fact that Martin Gage was a merchant at Bellona in early times, being also a tavern keeper as well as the first postmaster. He offered cash for all kinds of grain and, what were better he said, were lottery tickets. On one occasion, about 1820, he had the good fortune to draw half of a $6,000 prize, a considerable amount in those days when one could buy a farm for several hundred dollars.
In Milo Center, further north in the county than Dundee, history recalls that Alexander Nichols, 22-year-old son of Revolutionary War soldier Isaac Nichols, was walking at night through the woods near his home when he had the feeling that he was being followed. Although he saw or heard nothing, the feeling persisted. Suddenly he was startled by the blood-curdling scream of a panther and caught sight of its glowing eyes. It sprang at him and clawed his arm badly. He was able to plunge his knife into its side, but this did not kill it. Young Nichols ran around a huge tree and the panther right after him. As it chased him around the tree, he made a grasp for its tail and twisted it, which caused the animal to scream in rage and pain. Finally he succeeded in killing the beast, which measured eight feet and nine inches.
No account of the county would be complete without at least some mention of its four-footed inhabitants. There are tales of bell deer, who helped direct the pioneer to a herd so he might have his winters’ meat supply, wolves who carried off sheep, and bears who ate pigs, and at least on one occasion a pig who ate an baby in its carrier propped just outside the settler’s door.
The best of the animal stories, in the writer’s mind, is the one of the missing American flags from the markets on the graves of veterans in Lake View Cemetery in Penn Yan. Much investigation took place, with suspicion centering on youth. Close watch was kept, but the flags continued to disappear. Finally the superintendent noted while working in the vicinity of a twenty foot pole topped by a large bird house, that squirrels that October of 1941 were making ready winter quarters. They had tucked the flags into all the openings of the two-floor, eight compartment bird house effectively sealing off the cold blasts to come. At least forty of the flags had been ripped off their standards and carried six hundred feet across the cemetery to make their home cozy and snug.
And so it goes, the history of any spot, in grand fashion and noble thoughts, but also in the every day life of ordinary people.